FILE - In this May 9, 2014 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to speak at a navy parade marking Victory Day in Sevastopol, Crimea. Angry with the West’s response over Ukraine, Russia is moving rapidly to bolster ties with North Korea in a diplomatic nose-thumbing that could complicate the U.S.-led effort to squeeze Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons program. Russia’s proactive strategy in Asia- which also involves cozying up to China and had been dubbed “Putin’s Pivot” - began years ago as Moscow’s answer to Washington’s much touted rebalancing of its military forces in the Pacific. (Ivan Sekretarev, File/Associated Press) By Associated Press June 4 at 10:32 AM TOKYO — Angry with the West’s response over Ukraine and eager to diversify its options, Russia is moving rapidly to bolster ties with North Korea in a diplomatic nose-thumbing that could complicate the U.S.-led effort to squeeze Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons program. Russia’s proactive strategy in Asia, which also involves cozying up to China and has been dubbed “Putin’s Pivot,” began years ago as Moscow’s answer to Washington’s much-touted alliance-building and rebalancing of its military forces in the Pacific. But it has gained a new sense of urgency since the unrest in Ukraine — and Pyongyang is already getting a big windfall with high-level political exchanges and promises from Russia of trade and development projects. Moscow’s overtures to North Korea reflect both a defensive distancing from the EU and Washington because of their sanctions over Ukraine and a broader, long-term effort by Russia to strengthen its hand in Asia by building political alliances, expanding energy exports and developing Russian regions in Siberia and the Far East. For North Korea, the timing couldn’t be better. Since the demise of the Soviet Union and the largesse it banked on as a member of the communist bloc, the North has been struggling to keep its economy afloat and has depended heavily on trade and assistance from ally China. Sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs have further isolated the country, and Pyongyang has long feared it could become too beholden to Beijing. Better ties with Russia could provide a much needed economic boost, a counterbalance against Chinese influence and a potentially useful wedge against the West in international forums — and particularly in the U.S.-led effort to isolate Pyongyang over its development of nuclear weapons. “By strengthening its relationship with North Korea, Russia is trying to enhance its bargaining position vis-à-vis the United States and Japan,” said Narushige Michishita, a North Korea and Asia security expert at Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. Michishita added that showing Washington he will not be cowed by the sanctions was “one of the most important factors” why Putin is wooing Pyongyang now. Moscow remains wary of having a nuclear-armed North Korea on its border. But over the past few months it has courted the North with various economic projects, political exchanges and a vote in the Duma, the top Russian legislative body, to write off nearly $10 billion in debt held over from the Soviet era. It has pledged to reinvest $1 billion that Pyongyang still owes into a trans-Siberian railway through North Korea to South Korea — a project that is still in the very early stages. That, together with a pipeline, would allow Russia to export gas and electricity to South Korea. Michishita noted that the same day the United Nations’ General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Russia and North Korea were busy signing an economic trade cooperation pact. The warming began around July last year, but it has accelerated as Moscow’s antagonism with the West has grown. Moscow sent a relatively low-ranking representative to the 60th anniversary of the end of fighting in the Korean War that month. But since then, it has hosted North Korea’s head of state at the opening of the Olympic Games in Sochi and, in March, sent its minister in charge of Far East development to Pyongyang. A three-day visit in April by Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev, who is also the presidential envoy for Russia’s far eastern federal district, marked the “culmination of a new phase in Russian-North Korean relations taking shape — a sort of renaissance if you will,” Alexander Vorontsov, a North Korea expert at the Russia Academy of Sciences, wrote recently on the influential 38 North blog. “It is still an open question whether the current crisis in Ukraine will result in any more substantial shifts in Russian policy toward North Korea, particularly in dealing with the nuclear and missile issues,” Vorontsov said in his blog post. “With the West increasing pressure on Russia as a result of differences over Ukraine, the very fact that Moscow and Pyongyang are subject to U.S. sanctions will objectively draw them together, as well as with China.” Since 2003, a series of multilateral talks have been one of the primary means of pressuring North Korea to denuclearize and to coordinate policy between the six main countries involved — China, Russia, the United States, Japan and North and South Korea. Though still seen as one of the best tools the international community has to pressure Pyongyang on the nuclear issue, the talks were fraught from the start because of the North’s unwillingness to back down and the lack of a unified stance among the five other nations. With North Korea showing no signs of giving up its nuclear option, some analysts believe a widening rift between Russia and the U.S. could weaken future six-party talks. “North Korea’s motivations and actions are driven by the leadership’s perceptions, world view, and ideology,” said Seoul-based analyst Daniel Pinkston, of the International Crisis Group. “That remains the same. As long as the leadership is wedded to son’gun (Military First) ideology, they will not denuclearize before the rest of the world does. And that’s exactly what their government and media say repeatedly.” Michishita, the Japanese security expert, said the Moscow-Pyongyang thaw could just muddy the waters. “North Korea will not denuclearize anyway,” he said. “A better relationship with Russia might be a positive factor for North Korea in coming back to the six-party talks. But North Korea will certainly try to use it to enhance its position vis-à-vis not only the United States and Japan, but also China.” ___ Talmadge is the AP’s Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/EricTalmadge. Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Message from the Prime Minister-"Security of Japan and East Asia"
===================================================================
Hatoyama Cabinet E-mail Magazine No. 32 (May 28, 2010)
===================================================================
Yukio Hatoyama's "Yu-Ai"
-- Message from the Prime Minister (provisional translation of the
Japanese version, which is delivered on Thursdays)
"Security of Japan and East Asia"
Regarding the sinking of the ROK Naval patrol vessel "Cheonan,"
I express my heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the 46 victims
of the incident, the members of their bereaved families, and the
people of the Republic of Korea (ROK). On May 20, as a result of
the joint investigation with experts from the United States, United
Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia, the ROK government announced that
it had concluded that the incident had been caused by a torpedo
fired by North Korea.
On May 24, President Lee Myung-bak of the ROK gave an extremely
passionate and powerful speech toward the people of the ROK saying,
"I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North
accountable," and announced the ROK's intent to refer this matter
to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, among other measures.
I immediately spoke with President Lee by telephone, expressing my
respect for the resolute and calm manner in which the ROK
government has responded to the incident. I also reaffirmed Japan's
position to strongly support the ROK.
In the afternoon of May 24, I convened a Security Council meeting.
North Korea's action cannot be condoned by any means, and Japan
strongly condemns it together with the international community. As
a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Japan firmly
supports the ROK, and will strengthen coordination with the
international community, especially with the ROK and the United
States, both bilaterally and trilaterally, including response by
the UN Security Council. We will urgently consider anew our own
measures against North Korea and make the utmost effort for the
early enactment of the bill to establish a special measures law for
cargo inspections. Moreover, given this unpredictable situation, we
will enhance intelligence gathering and take all possible measures
to secure the safety and sense of security of the people of Japan.
This weekend, on Jeju Island in the ROK, a Japan-China-ROK
Trilateral Summit Meeting will be held. I would like to strongly
emphasize the need for Japan, China, and the ROK to coordinate and
cooperate even more closely for the peace and stability of East
Asia.
The government will make concerted efforts to further consolidate
the security of Japan and East Asia.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung Dies at 85
Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung Dies at 85
By BILL POWELL AND STEPHEN KIM Bill Powell And Stephen Kim Tue Aug 18, 11:30 am ET
Kim Dae Jung, who died on Aug. 18 of heart failure in Seoul at age 85, was not the father of democracy in South Korea, but he was its consolidator. Throughout the era when South Korea was effectively ruled by the military, Kim was its most active and prominent dissident. He came within 1 million votes of upsetting then President Park Chung Hee in an election in 1971, after which Park amended the constitution and turned South Korea into a one-party police state. In 1973 government agents - with Park's assent - kidnapped and apparently planned to kill Kim. The U.S. government intervened, strongly warning their Cold War–era ally to back off. Park complied, and in that moment the history of the Republic of Korea was altered.
In 1980, citizens in the southern city of Gwangju, the capital of Kim's home province of Jeolla, took to the streets to demonstrate against the military dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan, who had taken power in a coup following the assassination of Park in 1979. Kim, a leading dissident, was arrested the day before the demonstration. The government crackdown was brutal, resulting in the death of 165 citizens. Kim would use the massacre to attack the ruling party for the rest of his days in opposition. (See pictures of modern-day Seoul.)
Those days came to an end in December 1997, when on his fourth try for the presidency he was elected - the first leader to be elected from an opposition party in South Korea's history. (A fellow dissident and political rival, Kim Young Sam, had thrown in with the ruling party when he was elected in 1992.) Kim's election, more than anything, showed that democracy had come to South Korea to stay. (See pictures of brawling legislators in Seoul.)
Still, for the country it was a tumultuous time. The Asian financial crisis had devastated what had once been one of East Asia's fastest-growing economies. Kim privatized state-owned companies and jump-started South Korea's IT sector. After getting $60 billion in loans from the IMF in 1997, South Korea became the first East Asian country to, in effect, graduate from its oversight, paying its IMF loans back faster than any other East Asian country, in 2000. (See lessons from Asia's financial crisis.)
That same year, Kim made a historic mark diplomatically. He traveled to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il - the first meeting between North and South Korean leaders since the end of the war. The meetings came as part of Kim's so-called Sunshine Policy, which sought economic and diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang. His hope was that a more dovish stance toward the North would convince Pyongyang to rid itself of its nuclear-weapons program. He explicitly stated that reunification of the Korean peninsula would come only after a long period of "peaceful coexistence" with the North. The stance infuriated conservatives in South Korea, who thought Kim's hope for change in the North was naive.
Kim's policy also clashed with that of then incoming U.S. President George W. Bush, who famously told a journalist that he "loathed" Kim Jong Il. A summit meeting between the two ostensible allies went poorly. At one point in a 2001 summit, Bush publicly called the South Korean head of state "this man," instead of President Kim. Kim's supporters in Seoul were furious. Both sides would later acknowledge that the two Presidents had very differing views on how to deal with Pyongyang. (Read about Kim Jong Il's secret family.)
In 2000, Kim was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his pursuit of the Sunshine Policy. Its fruits, it turned out, would not be particularly evident when Kim passed away on Tuesday. But he went to his death believing that engagement was the only option when it came to North Korea, and in the Oval Office in Washington now, a new President shares the same belief.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See the Cartoons of the Week.
View this article on Time.com
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The Two Koreas Plan to Meet Again
Beijing Deal Bails Out Korea Summit
Why South Koreans Are Fed Up With Their Neighbor to the North
NoKo's Kim Has Cancer
Koreans Meet: More Than a Photo Op?
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Emotional funeral for South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090529/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_roh_funeral;_ylt=AmJr4L4FKxAc712vQyRE1qKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJtZDE4NnM3BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNTI5L2FzX3Nrb3JlYV9yb2hfZnVuZXJhbARjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzcEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDZW1vdGlvbmFsZnVu
Kwang-tae Kim And Jean H. Lee, Associated Press Writers – Fri May 29, 7:21 am ET
SEOUL, South Korea – A sea of wailing mourners filled the streets of Seoul for the funeral Friday of former President Roh Moo-hyun, whose suicide six days earlier amid a deepening corruption probe plunged South Korea into grief and anger.
Heads bowed, thousands took part in a solemn ceremony in the courtyard of the 14th-century Gyeongbok Palace before the hearse carrying Roh's body headed to a grassy plaza outside City Hall for emotional public rites attended by a reported 500,000 people. Riot police later moved in as the crush of mourners delayed the hearse from leaving the capital.
Police dispatched some 21,000 officers to quell any protests by Roh supporters who accuse conservative political opponents led by President Lee Myung-bak of driving the liberal former leader to his death with the bribery investigation.
The criticism comes as Lee faces an increasingly belligerent North Korea, which just two days after Roh's death carried out a nuclear test in a move widely condemned as a violation of U.N. resolutions.
Roh, 62, died May 23 after throwing himself off a cliff behind his home in the southern village of Bongha. Roh, president from 2003 to 2008, recently had been questioned about allegations he and his family accepted $6 million in bribes during his presidency.
He denied the bribery accusations, but they weighed heavily on a man who prided himself on his record as a "clean" politician in a country struggling to shake a deeply rooted culture of corruption.
The suicide stunned the nation of 49 million, where the outspoken Roh — a self-taught former human rights lawyer who swept into office on a populist tide — was celebrated as a leader for the people and was a favorite among young South Koreans for standing up to Washington.
Though many were critical of his antiestablishment ways, others rallied around his efforts to promote democracy, fight corruption and facilitate rapprochement with North Korea.
Roh "lived a life dedicated entirely to human rights, democracy and fight against authoritarianism," Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said at the palace funeral. "Our people won't forget what you accomplished for the country and the people despite a number of hardships."
Last weekend, Roh supporters refused to let Han and others from the ruling Grand National Party pay their respects in Bongha, with some dousing politicians with water and pelting them with eggs.
Roh supporters have called the probe against him "political revenge," and posters accusing Lee of driving Roh to his death plastered the walls of one Seoul subway station.
"I've never been so ashamed of being a citizen of this country — a country that kills its own president," said Won Seung-tae, 52, of Seoul. "It feels like we've lost all respect in pushing each other to extremes."
Opposition lawmakers jeered Lee as he and his wife approached the altar Friday to pay their respects.
"President Lee Myung-bak, apologize!" opposition lawmaker Baek Won-woo yelled, jumping to his feet and cursing Lee before security guards hauled him away. "This is political revenge, a political murder!"
A somber Lee looked back momentarily and hesitated before laying a white chrysanthemum on the altar and bowing before Roh's portrait. Lee had called Roh's death "tragic" upon learning of the suicide Saturday.
Roh's death triggered a wave of grief across South Korea, overshadowing the nuclear threat from North Korea's test blast Monday.
At City Hall, sobbing mourners wore yellow paper hats with images of Roh and waved yellow handkerchiefs as they watched the funeral on large monitors. The plaza was awash in yellow, Roh's campaign color.
"I respected him. He was a person who never compromised with injustice," said Chang Min-ki, 30, a yellow scarf tied around his neck. "I feel like I've lost everything."
The funeral procession began at dawn in Roh's hometown. Villagers lined Bongha's streets as the hearse blanketed with white chrysanthemums departed for the capital.
More than 2,500 were invited to a formal ceremony in the courtyard of the stately palace in the heart of ancient Seoul, where Roh's portrait sat on a bed of 1 million chrysanthemums laid in the shape of a Rose of Sharon, South Korea's national flower.
Roh's suicide note, in which he begs his wife and two children, "Don't be too sad" and describes his suffering as "unbearable," was read aloud.
Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns chanted prayers as part of the multifaith ceremony reflective of South Korea's changing modern history, where Confucian mourning traditions mix with Christian, shamanistic and Buddhist rites.
Roh's prime minister, Han Myung-sook, apologized for "not protecting" the late leader.
"We are sorry, we love you and we were happy with you," said Han, South Korea's first female prime minister, her voice trembling with emotion. "Please rest in peace."
At the plaza outside the City Hall that Lee built, performers in hemp mourning outfits carried out traditional Confucian rites designed to send Roh's spirit to heaven and to comfort his soul. As his hearse moved through the crowd, mourners showered it with airplanes and cranes made of yellow origami.
As some screamed "Down with Lee Myung-bak," riot police began moving in to break up the crowd before the hearse was able to depart.
Roh's ashes were to return to his village to be buried with a small gravestone as he wished.
TV showed the funeral live, as well as footage of Roh in more lighthearted moments: serenading his wife with a guitar, feeding ducklings and taking his granddaughter for a bike ride.
South Koreans mourned online, too, with some portals carrying live broadcasts of the funeral and users flooding bulletin boards and Roh's own Web site with hundreds of thousands of condolence messages.
"You didn't bow to any other country but you bowed to us citizens. You'll always be the father of the nation," wrote one user, Choi Jae-chul. "Rest in peace and please protect South Korea from heaven."
___
Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang, Ji-ah Kim and ShinWoo Kang contributed to this report.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Daewoo Int'l extends Myanmar field exploration
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSSEO3885220090403
SEOUL, April 3 (Reuters) -
South Korea's Daewoo International Corp said on Friday it had extended exploration rights to Myanmar's AD-7 oil and gas field despite other members of the project dropping out after the original exploration period ended in February.
Daewoo International (047050.KS) will have a 100 percent stake in the field under the new deal, from its previous 60 percent stake.
India's ONGC Videsh Limited had owned a 20 percent stake in the field, while another Indian firm, Gail (GAIL.BO), and state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) (036460.KS) each had 10 percent, it said.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
Monday, February 2, 2009
South Korean company seeks investment in mineral exploration in Myanmar
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6582924.html
February 01, 2009
A South Korean leading private company is seeking investment in mineral exploration in a major mine in Myanmar's northern Shan state, the local weekly Yangon Times reported in this week's issue.
Confirmed by the South Korean Embassy here, the Korean HC Company has coordinated with the Myanmar mining authorities to make investment in the Yadanar Theinki mining block on a mutually-beneficial basis and a field survey running for a period of up to one year will be conducted by Korean experts soon.
The South Korean company's intentional investment in the mining sector will be the first in Myanmar, the report said.
According to the journal's report, South Korea stands the fifth largest foreign investor in Myanmar injecting 50 million U.S. dollars in the oil and gas sector. Total Korean investment amounted to about 350 million dollars in the fiscal year 2007-08.
According to earlier official report, three S Korean companies-- Korea Resources Corporation (KRC), Daewoo International Corporation and Taihan Electric Wire joined the Canadian company of Ivanhoe in producing copper in three blocks of Sabetaung, Letpadaung and Kyisintaung near Monywa in Sagaing division under an agreement reached among them in January 2006.
The copper mining activities have been undertaken by the Canadian company since 1996 with 39,000 tons of copper producing annually.
Other firms engaged in mineral exploration in Myanmar include those from Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.
Official statistics show that foreign contracted investment in Myanmar's mining sector has amounted to about 534.19 million U.S. dollars as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, accounting for 3.6 percent of 14.736 billion dollars' total foreign investment and standing as the sixth largest sector.
Source: Xinhua
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
North Korea Says It Has ‘Weaponized’ Plutonium
http://bipartisanalliance.blogspot.com/2009/01/north-korea-says-it-has-weaponized.html
Saturday, January 17, 2009
by Choe Sang-Hun
TNYT, January 18, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean military declared an “all-out confrontational posture” against South Korea on Saturday as an American scholar said he had been told by North Korean officials that the North had “weaponized” 30.8 kilograms of plutonium, enough for four to six nuclear bombs.
That claim would confirm American intelligence estimates, which suggest that the North has harvested the fuel for six or more bombs.
South Korea ordered its military to heighten vigilance along the heavily fortified border with North Korea, said a spokesman of the South Korean military joint chiefs of staff.
North Korea’s saber-rattling rhetoric against the South has increased in intensity since President Lee Myung-bak came to office in Seoul a year ago, vowing to take a tougher stance on North Korea, reversing 10 years of his liberal predecessors’ efforts to engage the North with economic aid. But what made the threat on Saturday unusual — and more worrisome to some South Korean analysts — was the way it was delivered: in a statement read on North Korean television by a uniformed spokesman for the North Korean military joint chiefs of staff.
“Strong military measures will follow from our revolutionary armed force,” the spokesman, a colonel, said, according to Yonhap, South Korea’s national news agency, which monitors North Korean broadcasts.
Usually the North Korean government issues written statements that are delivered by North Korean media; sometimes the statements are read by press officers, not by a uniformed member of the military.
The spokesman he warned of a clash along a disputed western sea border between the Koreas. The two navies fought skirmishes there in 1999 and 2002. It is always difficult to decipher the messages that North Korea’s reclusive government is trying to send with its often bombastic missives. In times of crucial bargaining, North Korea often tries to drive a wedge between Washington and South Korea to sow discord between the allies, and raises the stakes by increasing demands and issuing dire threats.
With President-elect Barack Obama about to take office in the United States and negotiations over the North’s nuclear program expected to resume, it is possible that the North is merely setting up its negotiating position. But analysts said it could also be an indication that North Korea was intending to hold on to its arms despite an agreement it signed with five countries, including the United States, in 2005, in which it committed to eventually giving up those weapons. The exact conditions under which it would do so were unclear.
Questions over the health of the country’s quixotic leader, Kim Jong-il, also complicate any attempts to understand the country, where few Westerners have access. In August, there were reports that Mr. Kim suffered a stroke, and since then rumors have swirled about who might succeed him.
The news about the possible weaponization of North Korea’s stores of plutonium were delivered Saturday by the American scholar, Selig S. Harrison, the director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy, who was in Beijing after returning from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Mr. Harrison, said that when pressed, the North Korean officials did not explicitly say what “weaponization” of the plutonium meant, but that the implication was that North Korea had created nuclear bombs with the plutonium.
Mr. Harrison, a former journalist, often travels to North Korea to meet with senior officials there.
“They’ve raised the bar and said, ‘We are a nuclear weapons state and deal with us on that basis,’ ” said Mr. Harrison at a news conference in the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing.
Mr. Harrison acknowledged that North Korea could be bluffing in order to use the claim of having nuclear weapons as a negotiating tactic.
He added that all the officials he met with seemed eager to open discussions with the incoming Obama administration. “All the statements about Obama were very helpful, very respectful,” he said.
Thirty kilograms of plutonium, about 66 pounds, which would account for most of the 37 kilograms North Korea declared that it possessed to the United States last year, is enough for it to make four to six bombs, according to nuclear experts.
South Korea had no immediate reaction to Mr. Harrison’s report.
Earlier Saturday, North Korea also toughened its stance toward Washington, saying that reopening diplomatic ties would not be enough to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons. It said it would maintain its “status as a nuclear weapons state” as long as there was a nuclear threat from the United States.
“We can live without normalizing ties with the United States, but we cannot live without a nuclear deterrent,” a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry told its official news agency, KCNA.
In the past, the North had said it would not dismantle the weapons until the United States changed what it termed its “hostile attitude.”
In the spokesman’s comments, and his similar statement last Tuesday, North Korea laid out its demands as it prepared for a new series of negotiations with Mr. Obama, who will be inaugurated on Tuesday.
Its stance posed the hard question to the new Obama administration of what it would take to remove North Korea’s nuclear weapons assets.
In its Tuesday statement, North Korea indicated that the removal of an American nuclear threat meant the removal of South Korea from the American nuclear umbrella, the introduction of a verification mechanism to ensure that no American atomic weapons are deployed in or pass through South Korea, and even simultaneous nuclear disarmament talks among “all nuclear states,” including itself.
Six-nation talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear programs, which include the United States, stalled in the last months of the Bush administration as the United States and North Korea bickered over how much nuclear inspection the North should accept.
Edward Wong contributed reporting from Beijing.
Posted by Bipartisan Alliance/DC at 10:41 AM
Monday, January 5, 2009
Human Rights Abuse in Myanmar?-SOUTH KOREA
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/01/160_37236.html
By David Watermeyer
It is tragic, yet sadly unsurprising, that the Korean government has rejected a serious complaint filed against Daewoo International and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding their ``complicity in human rights abuses" in Myanmar (Burma) in the course of building a pipeline through the country.
``Burma'' is used here to show solidarity with those who denounce as nothing less than evil the actions of military junta who were responsible for naming the county Myanmar.
According to a news release put out by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), SGM global coordinator Wong Aung, a member of the Arakan ethnic group, through whose community the proposed pipeline will traverse, strongly criticized the Korean government's decision on Tuesday.
An extraction from the report says, ``The Korean government has decided to ignore the reality of major resource extraction projects in Myanmar and the specific devastating effects of the Shwe project on the people in the pipeline regions.
The Korean government has a responsibility under OECD guidelines. In rejecting the complaint they are abdicating their responsibility to investigate violations and mediate disputes in line with the guidelines; guidelines to which the have agreed to be obligated.''
All over the world people have watched in horror as atrocity after atrocity is committed by the military junta in that country, where unarmed Buddhist monks were gunned down like flies and rations from foreign countries after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country on May 3 meant for the starving millions by were blocked from delivery by this same military junta in an unspeakable act of callousness.
What is less known is how the junta continues to empower itself to rule over its people through dealings with various other countries and companies.
If these entities would not support the military junta but rather join the rest of the world in condemning and boycotting it, the tyrannical regime would not be able to continue.
The news release said, ``Daewoo International and the KOGAS have breached and will continue to breach a number of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises related to their activities in Burma (Myanmar)."
``These breaches are related to the companies' exploration, development, and operation of the natural gas project in Burma known as the Shwe Gas Project, meaning ``gold" in Burmese."
Few are unaffected by the trying economic times we are living in and that may play a part in why KOSGAS and Daewoo International, despite being told clearly at the highest level what is going on, appear to be paying no heed to the cries of the Myanmarese population.
But surely there are other options to explore than being complicit in evil.
David Watermeyer is a freelance writer residing in Seoul. He can be reached at davidnwatermeyer@yahoo.co.uk. The views expressed in the above article is those of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of The Korea Times.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Myanmar Sends 19 North Korean Refugees To Thailand
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=219732
Nineteen North Korean refugees, detained at a Myanmar border town early this month, have been released and sent to neighbouring Thailand, a government official said on Wednesday.
The group, which included 15 women and a young boy and had faced up to three years in prison for illegal entry, were sent to the border town of Tachileck, where they crossed into Thailand, said the official who declined to be named.
Hundreds of North Koreans flee the hermit state every year, usually crossing into China and then on to a third country on their way to eventual asylum in South Korea, rights groups say.
Many end up in Thailand, packing detention facilities. South Korea grants asylum to the North Koreans at a slower rate than they have been arriving, creating a bottleneck that has strained ties between Seoul and Bangkok.
A South Korean diplomat in Yangon confirmed the group were in Thailand and "will be allowed to go to South Korea".
The military-ruled former Burma severed its ties with North Korea in 1983 after a major bomb attack in Yangon, allegedly plotted by Pyongyang, against former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan while he was on a state visit.
Seventeen South Korean officials in Chun's delegation, including cabinet ministers, were killed in the bomb attack at the Martyrs Mausoleum in Yangon.
Since restoring diplomatic ties in 2007, Myanmar and North Korea have hosted top-level visits by officials from the world's two most isolated countries.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Companies from China, Myanmar, S. Korea sign gas pact in Myanmar
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/6561510.html
The China National United Oil Corporation (CNUOC), Myanmar and a consortium, led by the Daewoo International Group Corporation, signed an export gas sales and purchase agreement dealing with the Shwe Project here Wednesday.
The Shwe gas project, which lies at A-1 block in Myanmar's Rakhine offshore area, has been developed by the Daewoo consortium comprising South Korea Gas Corporation, India's ONGC Videsh Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL)
The agreement is a follow-up of a memorandum of understanding signed in Nay Pyi Taw in June this year between the CNPC, Myanmar and the Daewoo consortium on sale and transport of natural gas from offshore blocks A-1 and A-3.
Natural gas deposits were found at block A-1 (Shwe field and Shwephyu field) and block A-3 (Mya field) in the Rakhine offshore area in January 2004 and April 2005 respectively, explored by the consortium of oil companies led by Daewoo with 60 percent-stake. Other companies go to South Korea Gas Corporation (10 percent), ONGC Videsh Ltd of India (20 percent) and GAIL (10 percent).
The Shwe field holds a gas reserve of 4 to 6 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 113.2 to 170 billion cubic-meters (BCM), while the Shwephyu 5 TCF and the Mya 2 TCF with a combined proven reserve of5.7 to 10 TCF of gas being estimated by experts.
Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said, adding that the country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve.
According to the Central Statistical Organization, in the fiscal year 2007-08, Myanmar produced 7.62 million barrels of crude oil and 13.393 BCM of gas.
Statistics also reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached 3.243 billion dollars in 85 projects as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, standing the second in the country's foreign investment sectorally after electric power.
In 2007, foreign investment in the oil and gas sector more than tripled to 474.3 million U.S. dollars compared with 2006, accounting for 90 percent of the total during the year which stood505.02 million, according to the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.
Currently, 13 foreign oil companies, mainly from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Russia, are involved in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, according to official sources.
Source:Xinhua
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Korea Rejects Charge of Rights Abuse in Burma
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=14837
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By WILLIAM BOOT Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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BANGKOK — The South Korean government has rejected a complaint that two Korean companies have condoned human rights abuses and failed to meet international standards in Burma in pursuit of gas exploration.
The complaint alleged that industrial conglomerate Daewoo International and government-owned Korea Gas Corporation had failed to comply with guidelines on corporate responsibility and investment laid down by the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD).
The Block A-1 gas field off the northwestern coast of Burma. Daewoo International and the Korea Gas Corporation have a
70 percent stake in three Burmese offshore gas wells including
A-1. (Source: The Chosun Ilbo)
South Korea is a member of the OECD, which is made up of the world’s leading industrialized countries.
The allegation was lodged by the U.S.-based group EarthRights International (ERI) and backed by several other organizations including South Korea’s two biggest labor union federations.
Daewoo and Korea Gas are partners in a consortium developing the huge Shwe gas field off the west coast of Burma close to Bangladesh.
ERI contends that “human rights abuses have been perpetrated against local people opposing Daewoo’s Shwe Gas Project.”
It also says Daewoo’s plan to construct a trans-Burma gas pipeline to China from the Shwe field “poses an unreasonably high risk of more serious and widespread human rights and environmental impacts.”
South Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy has rejected the complaint “on all counts,” ERI said on Wednesday.
“Moreover, the [ministry] opined that the general situation in Burma and specifically around the Shwe Project does not merit an investigation or arbitration between the companies and the complainants,” ERI said in a statement. “[It] flies in the face of evidence from groups and communities from within the proposed pipeline area in Burma.”
ERI alleged in its October complaint to the South Korean government that Daewoo and Korea Gas—also known as KOGAS—are in breach of at least six OECD guidelines “by failing to respect human rights, contributing to forced labor, failing to promote sustainable development, failing to disclose information about the project, failing to consult with local populations and by failing to conduct an environmental impact assessment according to international standards.”
ERI says it was only informed of the complaint rejection indirectly and unofficially via a co-complainant in South Korea.
“If Daewoo and KOGAS were to genuinely conform to the (OECD) guidelines, the Shwe Project would have to be postponed, which evidently is against the priorities of both the companies and the ministry,” said Matthew Smith, Burma Project Coordinator at ERI.
“These companies and the Korean government are now on notice that negative social and environmental impacts from this project have begun, and are likely to continue and accelerate if this project moves forward. These companies bear responsibility for these abuses, and the Korean government is failing in its obligations under the OECD guidelines to prevent these harms. The blood of the people of Burma will be on their hands.”
ERI and its supporters complained that Daewoo and Korea Gas are in breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Daewoo is the main developer in the Shwe consortium with a 51 percent stake. Korea Gas holds 8.5 percent.
The field has recoverable reserves of at least 6 trillion cubic feet of gas, all of which is being purchased by China.
ERI says its research indicates that the 1,100-mile gas pipeline through Burma will pass through at least 24 townships and close by several large population centers in Arakan State and four other regions including Shan State.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
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