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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (5742)	1/6/2003 12:48:13 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Seven million Koreans facing starvation independent.co.uk By Jasper Becker in Beijing 05 January 2003 The United Nations food agency warned yesterday that supplies for some seven million people, a third of North Korea's population, will run out early next month without furtheraid. The news could worsen the crisis over North Korea's nuclear threats. "We only have firm commitments for 35,000 tons. This will be finished in early February, and then we might have to close shop," said Gerald Bourke, the spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Beijing. South Korea stopped food deliveries two months ago, after Pyongyang admitted running a secret nuclear weapons programme. Japan suspended aid after North Korea admitted kidnapping Japanese citizens. The WFP has cut three million people off from its aid programme. The hardest-hit are townspeople who can expect to get only 270 grams a day through North Korea's public distribution system, half the standard emergency food ration. The UN scaled back its 2003 appeal for North Korea by 16 per cent, to 512,000 tons of grain, but only the European Union and Italy individually have so far responded. North Korea has suffered from famine for a decade, and at least two million people have died of starvation. The US has been the largest contributor to emergency food deliveries over the past seven years which have fed nine million people a year. Although George Bush has said the US will not withhold food, the US Agency for International Development began insisting last June that North Korea meet the same conditions for aid that are mandatory elsewhere, such as providing a list of beneficiaries and unimpeded access for aid monitors. On this issue, however, as with efforts to defuse the nuclear crisis, there is deadlock. Last month North Korea expelled International Atomic Energy Authority monitors and restarted its Yongbyon plant, signalling its intention to build a nuclear arsenal. As the regime slips further into isolation, with just two flights a week to Pyongyang, South Korea has begun a round of diplomatic meetings to find a solution. It held talks yesterday in Moscow and has also dispatched a mission to Washington. According to a South Korean newspaper, Munhwa Ilbo, Seoul is presenting a "three-stage" mediation proposal - a US guarantee of the North's security and fuel oil supplies in return for an end to the nuclear weapons programme; international economic assistance; and a multinational security guarantee for the North, including from China and Russia. But the Bush administration has repeated that it will not negotiate another deal with North Korea, which it says cheated on a 1994 pact. "We have no intention to sit down and bargain again, to pay for this horse again," said the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher. "We are not entering into negotiations ... to get them to commit to something that they've already committed to." North Korea blames the US for the dispute, which it said yesterday was serious and unpredictable. Its ambassador to China repeated demands that Washington agree to a non-aggression treaty.

To: Mephisto who wrote (5742)	1/6/2003 1:02:52 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Robert Fisk: The double standards, dubious morality and duplicity of this fight against terror " The Independent has published the most detailed reports of Algerian police torture and of the extrajudicial executions of women as well as men. Yet the US, as part of its obscene "war on terror", has cosied up to the Algerian regime. It is helping to re-arm Algeria's army and promised more assistance. William Burns, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East, announced that Washington "has much to learn from Algeria on ways to fight terrorism". 04 January 2003 Meanwhile, we are ploughing on to war in Iraq, which has oil, but avoiding war in Korea, which does not have oil I think I'm getting the picture. North Korea breaks all its nuclear agreements with the United States, throws out UN inspectors and sets off to make a bomb a year, and President Bush says it's "a diplomatic issue". Iraq hands over a 12,000-page account of its weapons production and allows UN inspectors to roam all over the country, and - after they've found not a jam-jar of dangerous chemicals in 230 raids - President Bush announces that Iraq is a threat to America, has not disarmed and may have to be invaded. So that's it, then. How, readers keep asking me in the most eloquent of letters, does he get away with it? Indeed, how does Tony Blair get away with it? Not long ago in the House of Commons, our dear Prime Minister was announcing in his usual schoolmasterly tones - the ones used on particularly inattentive or dim boys in class - that Saddam's factories of mass destruction were "up [pause] and running [pause] now." But the Dear Leader in Pyongyang does have factories that are "up [pause] and running [pause] now". And Tony Blair is silent. Why do we tolerate this? Why do Americans? Over the past few days, there has been just the smallest of hints that the American media - the biggest and most culpable backer of the White House's campaign of mendacity - has been, ever so timidly, asking a few questions. Months after The Independent first began to draw its readers' attention to Donald Rumsfeld's chummy personal visits to Saddam in Baghdad at the height of Iraq's use of poison gas against Iran in 1983, The Washington Post has at last decided to tell its own readers a bit of what was going on. The reporter Michael Dobbs includes the usual weasel clauses ("opinions differ among Middle East experts... whether Washington could have done more to stop the flow to Baghdad of technology for building weapons of mass destruction"), but the thrust is there: we created the monster and Mr Rumsfeld played his part in doing so. But no American - or British - newspaper has dared to investigate another, almost equally dangerous, relationship that the present US administration is forging behind our backs: with the military-supported regime in Algeria. For 10 years now, one of the world's dirtiest wars has been fought out in this country, supposedly between "Islamists" and "security forces", in which almost 200,000 people - mostly civilians - have been killed. But over the past five years there has been growing evidence that elements of those same security forces were involved in some of the bloodiest massacres, including the throat-cutting of babies. The Independent has published the most detailed reports of Algerian police torture and of the extrajudicial executions of women as well as men. Yet the US, as part of its obscene "war on terror", has cosied up to the Algerian regime. It is helping to re-arm Algeria's army and promised more assistance. William Burns, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East, announced that Washington "has much to learn from Algeria on ways to fight terrorism". And of course, he's right. The Algerian security forces can instruct the Americans on how to make a male or female prisoner believe that they are going to suffocate. The method - US personnel can find the experts in this particular torture technique working in the basement of the Château Neuf police station in central Algiers - is to cover the trussed-up victim's mouth with a rag and then soak it with cleaning fluid. The prisoner slowly suffocates. There's also, of course, the usual nail-pulling and the usual wires attached to penises and vaginas and - I'll always remember the eye-witness description - the rape of an old woman in a police station, from which she emerged, covered in blood, urging other prisoners to resist. Some of the witnesses to these abominations were Algerian police officers who had sought sanctuary in London. But rest assured, Mr Burns is right, America has much to learn from the Algerians. Already, for example - don't ask why this never reached the newspapers - the Algerian army chief of staff has been warmly welcomed at Nato's southern command headquarters at Naples. And the Americans are learning. A national security official attached to the CIA divulged last month that when it came to prisoners, "our guys may kick them around a little in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath (sic)." Another US "national security" official announced that "pain control in wounded patients is a very subjective thing". But let's be fair. The Americans may have learnt this wickedness from the Algerians. They could just as well have learned it from the Taliban. Meanwhile, inside the US, the profiling of Muslims goes on apace. On 17 November, thousands of Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, Afghans, Bahrainis, Eritreans, Lebanese, Moroccans, Omanis, Qataris, Somalis, Tunisians, Yemenis and Emiratis turned up at federal offices to be finger-printed. The New York Times - the most chicken of all the American papers in covering the post-9/11 story - revealed (only in paragraph five of its report, of course) that "over the past week, agency officials... have handcuffed and detained hundreds of men who showed up to be finger-printed. In some cases the men had expired student or work visas; in other cases, the men could not provide adequate documentation of their immigration status." In Los Angeles, the cops ran out of plastic handcuffs as they herded men off to the lockup. Of the 1,000 men arrested without trial or charges after 11 September, many were native-born Americans. Indeed, many Americans don't even know what the chilling acronym of the "US Patriot Act" even stands for. "Patriot" is not a reference to patriotism. The name stands for the "United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act". America's $200m (£125m) "Total Awareness Programme" will permit the US government to monitor citizens' e-mail and internet activity and collect data on the movement of all Americans. And although we have not been told about this by our journalists, the US administration is now pestering European governments for the contents of their own citizens' data files. The most recent - and most preposterous - of these claims came in a US demand for access to the computer records of the French national airline, Air France, so that it could "profile" thousands of its passengers. All this is beyond the wildest dreams of Saddam and the Dear Leader Kim. The new rules even worm their way into academia. Take the friendly little university of Purdue in Indiana, where I lectured a few weeks ago. With federal funds, it's now setting up an "Institute for Homeland Security", whose 18 "experts" will include executives from Boeing and Hewlett-Packard and US Defence and State Department officials, to organise "research programmes" around "critical mission areas". What, I wonder, are these areas to be? Surely nothing to do with injustice in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict or the presence of thousands of US troops on Arab lands. After all, it was Richard Perle, the most sinister of George Bush's pro-Israeli advisers, who stated last year that "terrorism must be decontextualised". Meanwhile, we are - on that very basis - ploughing on to war in Iraq, which has oil, but avoiding war in Korea, which does not have oil. And our leaders are getting away with it. In doing so, we are threatening the innocent, torturing our prisoners and "learning" from men who should be in the dock for war crimes. This, then, is our true memorial to the men and women so cruelly murdered in the crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001. independent.co.uk

To: Mephisto who wrote (5742)	1/6/2003 2:48:26 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

North Koreans Blame U.S. for Their Nation's Plight By Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer latimes.com HAEKUMGANG, North Korea -- From the fortified bunkers peeking out under slabs of snow to the radar installations scattered over the rolling countryside to the concrete doors leading into mountainside tunnels, it is evident that this is a paranoid place. North Koreans live in a perpetual state of alertness, believing themselves to be a beleaguered people. Now more than ever, they feel, they are being victimized by the United States and must always be at the ready. Kim In Joon, 60, a guard at a seaside overlook whose job is to prevent visitors from taking photographs that might reveal military installations, is one of the rare North Koreans who sometimes meet foreigners. He welcomes an American visitor walking through his park with a New Year's greeting and a broad smile, gold-capped teeth glinting in the sun. Politely, Kim explains that he has nothing personal against the American people -- it's their government that is the bane of his existence. He can provide a long list of the perfidies he believes have been committed by the United States, ranging from the division of Korea after World War II to the Korean War. But his most immediate grievance -- more mundane than geopolitical -- is the shortage of electricity in his apartment. Under a 1994 agreement, the United States was supposed to build the North Koreans two safe light-water nuclear reactors and supply fuel oil in return for North Korea's freezing its nuclear program. But the reactors are years behind schedule, and in November, the United States and its allies ordered that deliveries of fuel oil to the North be suspended after Pyongyang acknowledged having a secret uranium-enrichment program. "It's because of the Americans that our electricity is so bad," said Kim, who lives in a first-floor apartment in the nearby port city of Kosung, which has at best a few hours of electricity each night. "We have a refrigerator, a television, a washing machine that we can't use because we don't have the electricity. When I see all those appliances that don't work, I get so mad I want to throw them at the Americans. "How can we trust the Americans when they don't keep their promises? We have no choice but to prepare ourselves to fight," he continued, as he mimicked brandishing a bayonet. This is a view readily expressed by anyone in North Korea willing to chat. The area along the country's southeastern coast near Mt. Kumgang, its leading tourist attraction, is the only part of the North open to foreigners -- albeit through highly restricted tours organized by a South Korean company -- and the North Koreans here speak along similar lines. Although this area is less than 10 miles from the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, the animus is reserved almost exclusively for the United States. "Let's throw out the American imperialists," reads one of the ubiquitous propaganda signboards, and many people use a derogatory term -- meeguknom -- when referring to Americans. By contrast, they pepper their speech with words of praise for the man they call their general, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The North Koreans portray themselves as the victims of that big bully, the United States. In particular, they are furious about the 1994 agreement signed in Geneva, which they believe was a double cross by Washington in which they gave up their nuclear program and got nothing in return. They note -- correctly -- that the two light-water reactors under construction by an international consortium were supposed to be finished this year but are so far behind schedule that, at the current pace, they would not be completed until 2008. "In 1994, we stopped the reactor because of the U.S. promise to build new reactors by 2003. Now it's 2003. Where are our reactors?" demanded a 32-year-old Mt. Kumgang guard who did not give his name. North Korea's decision last month to unfreeze its nuclear program was necessitated by the shortage of electricity, the people say. They disregard the fact that the 5-megawatt reactor being restarted at the nuclear complex in Yongbyon is of a size that makes it better suited for producing weapons-grade plutonium than electrical power. "How can we give up our nuclear weapons if the United States isn't giving up theirs? If you threaten me with a gun, I have to go out and get a gun," the guard said. With language that echoes the blustery rhetoric of official television and radio, North Koreans say they are not afraid of preemptive airstrikes or economic sanctions. "The stronger the United States becomes, the stronger we grow," said Pak Hyun Il, 28, an aspiring novelist who works at Mt. Kumgang. "We have a collectivist mentality that makes us stronger than the individualist Americans. And we are used to doing without. What can they take away from us?" Another guard, however, confessed to some jitters about a nuclear standoff developing with the United States. "Who wouldn't be nervous when there is a threat of war?" asked Choi Yeon Ho, 37. "But we are prepared for whatever happens." A South Korean businessman who works in the area and has many North Korean friends believes that, despite such bravado, they are scared. "The North Koreans speak very aggressively. They are very upset about the lack of electricity. But my personal opinion is that they want a dialogue with the United States. And they really don't want a war," said the businessman, speaking on condition of anonymity. At least one of the Mt. Kumgang guards agreed. "I wish George Bush would come here to Mt. Kumgang himself," he said, "and we could talk to him." The North Koreans say they get their information about the nuclear crisis from the two official newspapers and from state television on the nights that the electricity is working. South Korean businessman Kim Yoon Kyu of Hyundai Asan, which runs the tours to Mt. Kumgang, says the North Koreans have no clue how their country is perceived. "They are totally innocent," he said.

To: Mephisto who wrote (5742)	2/5/2003 11:39:12 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

'A Sea of Fire,' or Worse? The New York Times February 4, 2003 By NICHOLAS KRISTOF The North Korean nuclear crisis is far more perilous than many people realize . The White House, wanting to keep the focus on Iraq, did not even bother to tell us that satellite images show North Korea apparently taking steps toward reprocessing plutonium. It was left to my Times colleague David (Scoop) Sanger to alert the public a few days ago. Can you imagine if it were Iraq that had been spotted moving nuclear fuel around? The news that the Pentagon is reinforcing its preparedness on the Korean Peninsula suggests that it doesn't believe the White House lullabies either. When North Korea has reprocessed its plutonium and built five more nuclear weapons, probably by summer, it'll try to pressure us into a new package deal. To understand how dangerous the Korean Peninsula could become, consider one worst-case scenario: Feb. 14: The C.I.A. confirms that North Korea is reprocessing plutonium, making a pre-emptive U.S. military strike more difficult because of the risk of radiation leakage. Feb. 15: "This is not a crisis," the White House declares. March 17: North Korea announces that it will resume missile tests. Stocks plunge in Tokyo and Seoul. March 26: North Korea test-fires a two-stage Taepodong 2 missile. It soars over Japan, knocking 9 percent off the Tokyo stock market. C.I.A. analysts warn that a three-stage version of the Taepodong 2 could reach the U.S. mainland. March 27: "This is not a major crisis," the White House declares. April 7: On the birthday of the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung, North Korea resumes construction of a nuclear reactor in Taechon that will be capable of producing plutonium for 44 warheads annually. May 1: The U.N. Security Council approves sanctions. Without Chinese enforcement they mean little. June 29: North Korea completes reprocessing, and the plutonium is dispersed to be made into warheads. July 10: North Korea tests a nuclear device. Stocks tumble worldwide, leading a big Japanese bank to the edge of bankruptcy. July 12: North Korea formally declares itself a nuclear state, proudly asserting that the "Korean Bomb" will be used on behalf of all Koreans to combat Japanese and American aggressors. Stocks plunge worldwide, triggering a Japanese banking crisis and a global recession. July 13: "This is not a monumental crisis," the White House says. July 15: Tokyo's mayor, Shintaro Ishihara, launches a campaign for prime minister on a platform of building nuclear weapons. July 20: With its plutonium safely hidden, North Korea begins to pressure the U.S. to negotiate a package solution to the crisis. Its troops spray machine-gun fire across the DMZ. South Korean and Japanese stock markets fall 7 percent. Aug. 1: A sealed vial of anthrax is found in an Osaka subway car. No one is hurt, but some commentators suggest it is a message from North Korea to the U.S.: "You'd better talk to us." Aug. 5: Iranian and Libyan nuclear buyers are spotted shopping in Pyongyang. Aug. 6: "We shouldn't exaggerate this crisis," the White House says. "As we've said from the beginning, we're always ready to sit down with North Korea and talk." Aug. 13: Donald Rumsfeld offers three military options to President Bush. The minimal one calls for a cruise missile strike on North Korea's known nuclear facilities (but because the plutonium has been reprocessed and the warheads hidden, we cannot take out its nuclear arsenal). The maximal one also destroys the North's air defense system and much of its artillery. Aug. 16: Intelligence intercepts suggest that North Korea will respond to even a minimal U.S. military strike by launching conventional missiles at Japan, and to a broader strike by turning Seoul into "a sea of fire." The C.I.A. warns that if the North finds itself losing a conventional war, it will use chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons against Japan and U.S. forces in South Korea. All sides brace for a new Korean war, which the C.I.A. estimates could kill one million people. Aug. 17: Colin Powell is told by President Bush: "If only we'd listened to you two years ago about the need to engage North Korea! Even this February, if only we had started negotiations. I'm sorry, Colin, we blew it." Then Mr. Powell wakes up and realizes he was dreaming. nytimes.com Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company