Note: The format of ‘North Korea in the news’ has changed somewhat – brief commentary on selected news items is now included below the news links.

NYT: U.S. Said to Weigh a New Approach on North Korea
AFP: No early resumption seen to Korea nuclear talks
Yonhap: Washington urged not to blindly apply Libya model to N. Korea
Joongang Ilbo: Hints of capitalism at fair in Pyongyang
Asia Times: S Korea seeking to unify standards with North
Reuters: S.Korea development heats up near Cold War border
Chosun Ilbo: New W10,000 Note Unveiled
AFP: South Korea throttles back on US F-15 purchase
KBS: Jeju to Get Strategic Naval Base by 2014
Hankyoreh: Koreans must lead in healing pain of abductees’ families (op-ed)
KCNA: News items for 18 May 2006

NYT: U.S. Said to Weigh a New Approach on North Korea

President Bush’s top advisers have recommended a broad new approach to dealing with North Korea that would include beginning negotiations on a peace treaty, even while efforts to dismantle the country’s nuclear program are still under way, senior administration officials and Asian diplomats say.

I think that approach will be fine – if nuclear negotiations are tied to progress. That is, if North Korea is once again found to be in material breach of an agreement, consequences should be spelled out. Perhaps even make a permanent peace treaty dependent upon fulfilling a nuclear agreement for a set number of years. Of course this is aside from the fact that any agreement (or treaty) is highly unlikely in the short-to-mid term.
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Yonhap: Washington urged not to blindly apply Libya model to N. Korea

U.S. officials should not let themselves be intoxicated by their earlier success with Libya when dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program, a high-profile expert on American affairs said Thursday.

The Libyan model may tempt U.S. officials to take an unrealistic and more hard-line policy to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, said Han Sung-joo, who served as South Korea’s foreign minister during the Clinton administration and Seoul’s top envoy to Washington during the junior Bush government.

This falls under the category of ‘unintentional humor.’ Considering the reckless optimism of a relatively speedy reunification after the 15 June 2000 North-South summit vis-à-vis a stable record of U.S. guarded skepticism/realism, one has to wonder what Han Sung-joo has been smoking.
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Joongang Ilbo: Hints of capitalism at fair in Pyongyang

At a trade fair, South Koreans toured bustling booths set up by North Korean and foreign firms, and witnessed North Koreans buying goods there with U.S. dollars in their hands an indication that Pyongyang’s limited foray into capitalism, which began in 2002, is slowly progressing in the North’s strictly controlled economy.

While I have no doubt that some basic level of capitalism is progressing in the North, I interpret this to be more due to a fundamental breakdown of central control rather than the master plan. Since the mid-1990s the central government has been essentially incapable of providing basic goods and services, and must acquiesce to a certain level of markets or simply breakdown into chaos. Or perhaps quietly starve, in North Korea’s case.
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Chosun Ilbo: New W10,000 Note Unveiled

The Bank of Korea on Thursday unveiled a specimen of the new W10,000 note that will be put into circulation at the beginning of next year. The central bank claims the note has improved anti-forgery features. It is 13 mm shorter across and 8 mm shorter vertically than the current note. The portrait of King Sejong seated remains on the front.

In response, at least in part, to the counterfeiting that the south claims the north no longer engages in? Who knows.
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