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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (97801)	5/10/2003 5:08:04 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

Not sure if this has been posted yet - North Korea is banning or quarantining all foreigners due to fear of SARS - that includes NGO workers who bring in the food aid. [....] Five UN officials responsible for supervising deliveries of food and other aid, upon which at least a third of population relies, are among those in quarantine. Gerald Bourke, a spokesman for the World Food Programme in Beijing, said: "Shipments [to North Korea] are not affected but for the moment we have fewer people on the ground. Of course, if there were to be an outbreak, given the weak condition of the people it would be very serious. They don't have the medical infrastructure to cope with an outbreak." The cruise ship that carries tourists from South Korea to the resort of Mount Kumgang in North Korea, which brings in a steady flow of foreign currency, has stopped running, and more than 10,000 people have had to cancel their visits. South Korean officials participating in ministerial-level talks last week in Pyongyang could not get off the aircraft until they provided health certificates and had their temperatures taken. Once in Pyongyang, they were not permitted to leave their hotel. [....] news.independent.co.uk

To: NickSE who wrote (97801)	5/11/2003 12:30:10 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Sins of the Son Kim Jong Il's North Korea Is in Ruins, But Why Should That Spoil His Fun? washingtonpost.com When the Dear Leader was born in a humble log cabin on Korea's sacred Mount Paekdu in 1942, a bright star and a double rainbow appeared in the sky and a swallow descended from heaven to herald the birth of a "general who will rule all the world." A soldier in the army commanded by the Dear Leader's father, the Great Leader, saw the star and the rainbow and rejoiced, carving a message into a tree: "Oh, Korea, I announce the birth of the Star of Paekdu." That's the official North Korean version of the birth of Kim Jong Il, the brutal dictator who rules a nation that now taunts the world with its nuclear weapons. Western historians tell a more prosaic tale: Kim Jong Il was born in an army camp in Siberia, where his father, Kim Il Sung, and his tiny band of communist guerrillas had fled to escape the Japanese. [cont'd...]