CINA

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Following appeal for int'l solidarity was sent by MTU:

.. We write to inform you about a tragic fire that recently broke out in a foreigners' detention center in the city of Yeosu in South Korea's Southern Cheolla Province. We hope you will take serious notice of this incident and South Korea's inhumane treatment of migrant workers, which are at its roots, and organize a response in your area in solidarity withour efforts here in Korea..  ☞ Call for int'l solidarity..

S.K. "left"-liberal daily Hankyoreh published in the last days, in connection with the Yeosu tragedy several interesting articles:

☞ Illegal immigrants fear Korea’s detention centers

☞ Illegal workers often consider Korea a 'second home'

(BTW.. please read: so-called "illegal" migrant workers!!)

Yesterday (2.14) the bourgeois daily newspaper Korea Herald also started a series about the conditions of migrant workers in S. Korea:

☞ Maltreatment of illegals shocks Korean society

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Chavez, in his own words:

"The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is the kingdom of love and peace.. the kingdom of socialism. It's the kingdom of the future of Venezuela." (speech in Caracas, 2006.12.3)

"In the name of the wonderful constitution and Jesus Christ, the greatest socialist, I swear: Motherland, socialism or death." (swearing-in, 2007.1.10)

"I was maoist.. I read Che Guevara, I read Bolivar, his speeches and letters and I became a Bolivarian maoist.." (speech, Porto Alegre, World Social Forum, 2005.1.30)

^=^

PS

The "Struggle Alliance of German Socialists" (Kampfbund Deutscher Sozialisten/KDS, a German neo-nazi/fascist organisation)  "demonstrate solidarity with the 'Bolivarian Revolution' under the leadership of president Hugo Chavez", according to their home page..

☞ KDS poster

(Translation: "Struggle Instruction 2007

Defend the anti-imperialist revolution under the leadership of .. Chavez

against the US-imperialism..")

NO COMMENT!!

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The following is the full text of “Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint

Statement” adopted at the latest round of six-nation negotiations over North Korea's

nuclear weapons program in Beijing on Feb. 13.

The third session of the fifth round of the Six-Party Talks was held in Beijing among

the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, the

Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States of America from 8 to

13 February 2007.

Wu Dawei, vice minister of foreign affairs of the PRC, Kim Gye-gwan, vice minister of

foreign affairs of the DPRK; Kenichiro Sasae, director-general for Asian and Oceanian

affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan; Chun Yung-woo, special representative

for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs

and Trade; Alexander Losyukov, deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Russian

Federation; and Christopher Hill, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific

affairs of the Department of State of the United States attended the talks as heads of

their respective delegations.

Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei chaired the talks.

I. The parties held serious and productive discussions on the actions each party will

take in the initial phase for the implementation of the Joint Statement of 19

September 2005. The parties reaffirmed their common goal and will to achieve early

denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner and reiterated that they

would earnestly fulfill their commitment in the Joint Statement. The parties agreed to

take coordinated steps to implement the Joint Statement in a phased manner in line

with the principle of action for action.

II. The parties agreed to take the following actions in parallel in the initial phase:

1. The DPRK will shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment the

Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility and invite back IAEA

personnel to conduct all necessary monitoring and verifications as agreed between IAEA

and the DPRK.

2. The DPRK will discuss with other parties a list of all its nuclear program as

described in the Joint Statement, including plutonium extracted from used fuel rods,

that would be abandoned pursuant to the Joint Statement.

3. The DPRK and the U.S. will start bilateral talks aimed at resolving pending

bilateral issues and moving toward full diplomatic relations. The U.S. will begin the

process of removing the designation of the DPRK as a state-sponsor of terrorism and

advance the process of terminating the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act

with respect to the DPRK.

4. The DPRK and Japan will start bilateral talks aimed at taking steps to normalize

their relations in accordance with the Pyongyang Declaration, on the basis of the

settlement of unfortunate past and the outstanding issues of concern.

5. Recalling Section 1 and 3 of the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005, the parties

agreed to cooperate in economic, energy and humanitarian assistance to the DPRK. In

this regard, the parties agreed to the provision of emergency energy assistance to the

DPRK in the initial phase. The initial shipment of emergency energy assistance

equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil will commence within next 60 days.

The parties agreed that the above-mentioned initial actions will be implemented within

next 60 days and that they will take coordinated steps toward this goal.

III. The Parties agreed on the establishment of the following Working Groups (WG) in

order to carry out the initial actions and for the purpose of full implementation of

the Joint Statement:

   1. Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

   2. Normalization of DPRK-U.S. relations

   3. Normalization of DPRK-Japan relations

   4. Economy and energy cooperation

   5. Northeast Asia peace and security mechanism

The WGs will discuss and formulate specific plans for the implementation of the Joint

Statement in their respective areas. The WGs shall report to the Six-Party Heads of

Delegation Meeting on the progress of their work. In principle, progress in one WG

shall not affect progress in other WGs. Plans made by the five WGs will be implemented

as a whole in a coordinated manner.

The Parties agreed that all WGs will meet within next 30 days.

IV. During the period of the Initial Actions phase and the next phase _ which includes

provision by the DPRK of a complete declaration of all nuclear programs and

disablement of all existing nuclear facilities, including graphite-moderated reactors

and reprocessing plant _ economic, energy and humanitarian assistance up to the

equivalent of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO), including the initial shipment

equivalent to 50,000 tons of HFO, will be provided to the DPRK.

The detailed modalities of the said assistance will be determined through

consultations and appropriate assessments in the Working Group on Economic and Energy

Cooperation.

V. Once the initial actions are implemented, the Six Parties will promptly hold a

ministerial meeting to confirm implementation of the Joint Statement and explore ways

and means for promoting security cooperation in Northeast Asia.

VI. The Parties reaffirmed that they will take positive steps to increase mutual

trust, and will make joint efforts for lasting peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean

Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum.

VII. The Parties agreed to hold the sixth round of the Six-Party Talks on 19 March

2007 to hear reports of WGs and discuss on actions for the next phase.

***** 

Some related articles:

☞ North Korea agrees to nuclear deal (Guardian/UK)

☞ N Korea agrees nuclear shutdown (al-Jazeera)

☞ North Korea accord: Now for the hard part (Asia Times/HK)

☞ N. Korea tries different tack in nuclear facilities, weapons.. (Yonhap)

☞ Nuke Drama Opens ‘2nd Act’s 1st Scene’ (K. Times)

*****

BTW.. Last Friday's KCNA already wrote: "As a matter of fact, the DPRK's prestige has risen to its zenith and the public inside and outside Korea has become more vocal in supporting and praising its Songun policy since its access to nukes.."

And today's Spiegel Online (Germany) headlined: "US kowtow to Kim's nuclear course" ^^

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What a "surprise": Only 24 hours after the death of 9 migrant workers in Yeosu Immigration Detention Center, S.K.media of the ruling class found out who is "really" responsible for that tragic incident. Of course THE VICTIMS! Or at least one of them.

Korea Times (online version) is headlining today on the top of its site:

"Arson Suspected in Yosu Detention Center Blaze

Police suspect that one of the nine illegal immigrants killed in Sunday's fire at an immigration detention center in Yosu started the blaze in order to escape."

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200702/kt2007021217400111990.htm

The Hankyoreh ("left"-liberal daily newspaper) wrote today following significant article about the inhuman conditions in facilities like Yeosu Immigration Detention Center:

Fire at immigration detention center points to rights abuses
No light, poor ventilation, violation of immigration laws cited

A predawn fire at an immigration detention center in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province on February 11 killed nine foreigners detained in the facility. The fact that foreigners at such centers in other regions such as Incheon and Hwaseong have been complaining about poor conditions suggest that similar incidents could occur.

Two Bangladeshis detained in the Hwaseong detention center said that their room was very dark because it did not get much sunlight or air. A Pakistani detained there said, "The room has no window, so I have not seen sunlight for the past 20 days."

In consequence, if a fire breaks out in the facility, ventilation for prisoners would be quite poor.

Jo Jeong-hwan, an official at the Hwaseong center, agreed that there was no sunlight available for the detainees.

An official of Incheon’s immigration detention center said, "Three sides of the rooms are walls and a remaining side has only a small hole for distributing food, like a concentration camp," adding, "I know it would be dangerous if a fire were to occur." The official asked not to be named.

A report released by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea noted, "Foreigners in such centers are detained in an average space of 1.84 pyeong (1 pyeong equals 3.3 square meters) space per person. Unlike criminal correction facilities, which are often equipped with sports facilities, conditions at immigration detention centers are poor considering the fact that those detained must spend 24 hours a day there."

According to a survey of those detained at 16 immigration detention centers nationwide, 79.7 percent out of 184 respondents replied that they had been forced to wear handcuffs or other restraining devices.

Such detention centers hold people waiting to leave South Korea after being caught illegally staying in the nation. As soon as problems such as passport preparation and wage payment are resolved, these detainees are deported. But according to legal experts, there are not sufficient legal grounds to detain behind jail bars foreigners who have only violated immigration laws.

According to Lee Jeong-won, an official of the Alliance of Migrant Labors, the background of the tragedy in Yeosu is South Koreans’ way of thinking, which holds that those foreigners violating rules of sojourn should be detained without a warrant, he said. In addition, rules enforced at such shelters have no basis in existing immigration laws, said Lee. Rules at such shelters are based on many arbitrary factors and result in human rights abuses, he said.

The Yeosu immigration detention center where the tragedy occurred last week held long-term detainees. Besides Yeosu, Cheongju and Hwaseong have such large foreigners-only detention centers, and there are 21 small short-term detention centers inside of immigration centers. In total, up to 1,410 persons can be held in both types of facilities; currently, 897 foreigners are detained in South Korea.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/190097.html

*****

An editorial in today's Korea Herald about the same issue ended with following sentence:

"We all should blame ourselves for these deaths and the tragedy in Yeosu Sunday morning."

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/02/13/200702130011.asp

Oops~ for a S.K. bourgeois newspaper - just a surprising idea/opinion!!

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2.11: THE LETHAL END

OF THE "KOREAN DREAM"

S.K. policy of crackdown, human hunting, mass detention and deportation is killing migrant workers!

Today in the early morning in Yeosu Immigration Detention Center a fire broke out and killed at least 9 migrant workers.

When I was detained in Mok-dong immigration detention center I already worried about such an incident, because there - also - is complete nothing to prevent such incidents or even to save lives! If something like in Yeosu would be happen in Mok-dong, I'm sure that dozens or more migrant workers would/will be killed!

S.K. bourgeois daily newspaper Korea Times in its tomorrow's edition is reporting following:

Fire Kills 9 Detained Foreigners
18 Others Injured at Immigration Detention Center

A predawn fire at an immigration detention center in South Cholla Province on Sunday killed nine foreigners and injured 18 others, police said.

This is the largest number of foreign victims ever in a fire in South Korea. The deceased were eight Chinese nationals and one Uzbek. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are in critical condition.

The fire started at around 4 a.m. and most of the victims are believed to have suffocated from the fumes. About 55 foreigners were detained in the facility, including 42 Chinese, four Uzbeks, two from Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, and one each from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Vietnam and Iran.

About 120 firemen and 27 fire trucks rushed to the scene but failed to put out the fire early because each detention room was blocked with iron bars to prevent detainees from fleeing. It is believed that the high number of deaths was due in large part to the detention center's floors, a fireman said. The floors, which were said to have contained urethane, emitted toxic gases when on fire.

The Chinese Embassy, which saw the most victims, and the Uzbekistan Embassy are investigating the exact cause of the incident.

``We cannot comment on our position now. We need to further investigate the case and then we will respond to the Korean government officially with the result,'' said Chen Junle, a secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Korea.

Civic groups have criticized the government for their lukewarm efforts in protecting the rights of detained foreigners. Last year the immigration center was criticized for housing 18 foreigners in a room designed to accommodate only 10. But a Justice Ministry official said due to a tight budget and a sudden influx of illegal foreigners, the government has been unable to expand facilities for housing those detained.

The victims were taken to three nearby hospitals _ five to Songshim Hospital in Yosu, three to Chonnam Hospital in Yochon and one to Chonnam Hospital in Yosu.

Most of the foreigners in the detention center had been arrested for having entered into South Korea illegally for work.

Meanwhile, police are investigating the cause of the fire. If it was caused by arson, the government will pay out minimum compensation to survivors and family members. However, if the fire was caused by negligence of the center's staff, the compensation awarded will be significantly higher.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200702/kt2007021117284311990.htm

For more, please read this: 

☞ 창살 갇힌 ‘코리안드림’ 비상구는 없었다 (Hankyoreh)

☞ Nine foreigners killed in fire at immigration detention facility (Yonhap)

☞ 출입국관리소, '분향소 설치 못한다' (VoP, incl. links to several related articles)

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Six-Party Talks: The first two days.. actually without any real new developments..

So the int'l news agencies, like here al-Jazeera, had nothing really to report..

N. Korea talks mull China plan   
 
Envoys to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme are considering a proposal put forward by China for Pyongyang to suspend operations at its nuclear facilities within two months in exchange for energy aid.
  
The proposal was made by the Chinese after the first day of talks in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.
  
The plan has raised hopes of progress at the current round of talks after the US and North Korean envoys held bilateral meetings in Berlin last month.
 
The meetings were seen as easing tensions that had increased after the North conducted its first nuclear test last October, drawing UN sanctions.
 
Envoys from South Korea, China, the US, Japan and Russia voiced hope that North Korea would accept measures to rein in its nuclear activities in return for aid and security assurances.

 
The reported Chinese plan largely reflects an outline agreement struck at six-party talks in September 2005 but never implemented.
  
The chief US negotiator admitted that the six-party process – begun more than three years ago – had so far made little headway.
 
"We've gone 18 months without anything, and so we have to pick up the pace," Christopher Hill told reporters on Friday before going into the second day of talks.

'First step'
 
Kim Kye-gwan, the chief North Korean envoy, told the delegates on Thursday that Pyongyang was "ready to make its first step" towards denuclearisation, Russia's Interfax new agency reported, quoting an unidentified source.
 
US officials, cited by NBC News, said North Korea was offering to suspend and eventually disable its nuclear programme and permit UN inspections of facilities.

 
In exchange the US would establish diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, UN sanctions would end and the North would receive hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel aid.

 
However, Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief negotiator said the six sides still had much ground to cover.
 
"It's too early to discuss whether the draft agreement is acceptable as each country is to present its ideas and I believe China has its own ideas," he said.
  
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3D534BC9-38B8-464B-B4A2-D5BA7BD117B7.htm

Please read also the report by The Guardian (UK) 

☞ US to climbdown as Korea nuclear talks near deal
 

My comment/opinion about the issue will follow -likely(^^) - tomorrow..

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 6자회담..

Today the new round of the Six-Party Talks - DPRK vs. USA, China, S. Korea, Japan and Russia - started in Beijing. Well, it seems that many of the observers are expecting a kind of progress.. (Actually I don't expect nothing - no real progress! Why? I'll explain my opinion later - AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!)

Anyway.. here's the latest about the issue:

☞ Nuclear talks resume amid U.S. calls on N. Korea to denuclearize (연합)

☞ 中, 8일 밤이나 9일 합의문서 초안 작성할 듯 (VoP)

☞ '이행조치-상응조치' 합의 가능할까? (DailyNK)

CNN - the day before the beginning of the talks:

Asia Times (HK/China) already published following article last week (2.03):

North Korea: Something might just happen
 

Raise the topic of the upcoming round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons, and responses may range from "not again" to "what else is new?"
 

Forecasts of abject failure, while understandable in view of the prior record of rhetoric, disappointment and breakdown, may be premature. It's just possible - even probable, in the view of some but hardly all experts - that something substantive will emerge from all the yakking across the table and on the sidelines when
the protagonists cross swords yet again in Beijing beginning next Thursday.
 

No, that's not just because Christopher Hill, the US envoy to the talks, has been dropping upbeat remarks ever since he met his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, two weeks ago in Berlin. One might expect Hill, after all, to say, as he did in Washington before taking off for talks-before-talks in Seoul this weekend, "We believe we can make progress."
 

And Hill might also be expected to qualify that remark, as he carefully remembered to do, with the footnote that he was "very mindful of the fact that I expected progress in December, and it didn't happen".
 

But now things are different, really different, in the view of some of the experts. Now, they say, North Korea is going to Beijing to negotiate seriously, to drop a few bones for the Americans to chew on, to make an offer the US side just can't refuse - and then return to Pyongyang and await the next stage in the great bargaining game.
 

The logic here is that Kim Kye-gwan took the initiative in asking to see Hill, not the other way around, and specified that they should meet not in China but in Berlin, where Hill was scheduled to give a talk at a local college. Away from Chinese pressures, they engaged in intensive discussion for three days, after which North Korea came out with the extraordinary announcement that they had reached "a certain agreement" after talking in "a sincere atmosphere".
 

No one here is confusing "a certain agreement" with anything like final agreement on how the two sides are going to live up to the word of the joint statement of September 19, 2005, in which everyone - China, Japan, Russia, the US, and the two Koreas - agreed on providing huge amounts of aid to North Korea, and North Korea agreed to give up its nukes.
 

There is the sense, however, that Kim Kye-gwan, having returned to Pyongyang for final instructions, presumably handed down from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is not going to go back to Beijing with nothing to offer.
 

"It looks like there will be a piecemeal agreement," said Han Sung-joo, who was the South Korean foreign minister when the US engineered the 1994 Geneva Framework Agreement under which North Korea was promised twin light-water nuclear reactors in return for locking up its 5-megawatt reactor at its nuclear complex at Yongbyon and ceasing development of nuclear warheads.
 

"The United States needs a modicum of success after the debacle in Iraq," Han reasoned. "North Korea has a handful of piecemeal concessions to satisfy the political needs - without giving up [its] nuclear program."
 

No way, of course, does Han think North Korea is about to abandon its nuclear program until extracting much more from the US and others at the table. "They're keeping the weapons to the last stage," he said, playing "the good-boy role" all the while "weakening the rationale" for a strong alliance between the United States and South Korea.
 

Han offered this Machiavellian estimate of North Korea's strategy for negotiations at a conference staged in Seoul by the Korea Society and the Security Management Institute, a local think-tank, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Korea Society, a prestigious organization, led by retired senior US diplomats and funded in large part by Korean donations. Although Han believed North Korea would make an offer at the talks, he seemed to believe the purpose might well be to deepen fissures that are already evident in the US-South Korean relationship.
 

"We are at the point as to whether the alliance is pulled apart or stays together," said Han, who returned to public office as South Korea's ambassador to the US several years ago. "South Korean views on the alliance are quite polarized," he noted, with debate focusing on such issues as the extent of the North Korean threat, human rights in North Korea and, eventually, what kind of structure will emerge if North and South Korea move to reunification.
 

Don Oberdorfer, author of The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, offered more details on what he believed Kim Kye-gwan might bring to the table.
 

"The North Koreans are very likely to shut down Yongbyon and bring back [inspectors]," he said, an allusion to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency whom North Korea expelled at the end of 2002 after the breakdown of the 1994 Geneva agreement.
 

The deal might depend, said Oberdorfer - for many years a diplomatic and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post - on the US acting "to modify the Treasury Department sanctions that seem so painful to them". The inference was that Hill might be ready to offer to remove some of the restraints imposed by the Treasury Department in September 2005, shortly before the Statement of Principles was issued, on financial institutions dealings with Banco Delta Asia, the Macau bank through which Treasury officials accuse North Korea of channeling counterfeit US$100 bills.
 

Oberdorfer seemed surprisingly optimistic about the talks. "It appears there's going to be new life breathed into diplomacy," he said. All the participants "will have more of an opportunity to work positively" as all sides weigh the alternative of North Korea "continuing to make nuclear materials" and moving "toward war".
 

Nor was Oberdorfer pessimistic about the outlook for US-South Korean relations. "South Korea is going to move closer to the center," he said, suggesting that the South would pull back from policies viewed by the White House, as well as South Korean conservatives, as too soft toward North Korea. At the same time, he predicted, "The US is going to move closer to the center" with "an opportunity for both governments to work together" - but "not with such discrepancies".

Others were not nearly so sanguine about the upcoming talks.
 

Kim Sung-han, professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, affiliated with South Korea's Foreign Ministry, said only when the two allies, the US and South Korea, resolve their own differences "can we move closer to resolving the North Korea nuclear problem".
 

David Steinberg, director of the Asian studies program at Georgetown University, noted "an intensive rivalry as to which country", the US or South Korea, "will take the lead in dealing with North Korea". As for the alliance, he said it was in its present state "very tenuous indeed" with problems in the relationship "attributed to differences in policies toward North Korea".
 

Some observers believed the six-party talks were not likely to go anywhere until after the 2008 presidential election in the United States. A South Korean military officer was heard to murmur, "We're screwed," when asked what he thought of the six-party talks - and the likelihood of a serious deal emerging from them. The inference was that any agreement acceptable to North Korea would undermine the US-Korean alliance - and South Korea's determination to stand up against North Korea's demands.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IB03Dg01.html

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"The reactionary conservatives of south Korea such as the Grand National Party should be excluded from the nation.. Rodong Sinmun Sunday makes this demand in a by-lined article" (KCNA, 2.05 ☞ Removal of Reactionary Conservatives in S. Korea Urged)

Haha~ I'm 100 per cent sure that Rodong Shinmun will be "complete happy" about the (likely, but of course sad) result of the coming presidential election!! (oops, I'm really sorry..^^)

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"ANARCHY"(??) IN NK

IF the last day's reports about some latest developments in the DPRK are true (but who knows if..??), it seems that more and more people there are searching for alternatives, a piece of freedom - even it might be perilous.

Just check out - for example - following stories:

☞ 20 N. Korean Border Guards Flee to China (K. Times, 2.05)

☞ 1 Platoon of Border Guards Escape North Korea (DailyNK, 2.05)

☞ 120 Prisoners Escape NK Political Concentration Camp (DailyNK, 2.06)

KPA soldiers near the border to China..

But not only the "ordinary" people in the DPRK are looking for an alternative life..

Last week it became public that Kim Jong-nam, one of Kim Jong-il's sons - actually his most "famous" son - is becoming a migrant (^^) in China/Macau!

☞ North Korean heir gambles with his future (Asia Times, HK/China, 2.06)

☞ Kim Jong-il’s Son Living Life of Riley in Macau (Cholsun Ilbo, 2.02)

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One US Soldier In Pyeongyang 

"Joe Dresnok could be the ultimate runaway. Growing up an orphan in Virginia, he kept running away from abusive foster homes. Then, as a soldier serving on the DMZ between North and South Korea, Dresnok did the unthinkable: in 1962, he ran through a minefield and defected into North Korea, where his unthinkable act led to an unimaginable life..", like that a CBS report (1.28) about the last and only US soldier residing in the DPRK was introduced.

The entire (really) unbelievable story here:  

☞ Joe Dresnok: An American In North Korea (CBS, 1.28)

 Watch: Last U.S. Soldier In N. Korea