20050920

Nations iron out a deal over N Korea

HIGH-STAKES CRISIS: The six-party talks that have been on-again, off-again for years finally achieved a breakthrough -- although not a very definitive one

AGENCIES , BEIJING

"The devil will be in the detail of who's allowed to go in when."－ Bob Broadfoot, risk consultant

North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program yesterday, defusing a high-stakes crisis, but sceptics said the deal hammered out in Beijing was long on words and short of action.

South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China -- the other players in the six-party talks -- in exchange expressed a willingness to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees.

Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalize ties with the impoverished and diplomatically isolated North, which pledged to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"The joint statement is the most important achievement in the two years since the start of six-party talks," Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei said. The seven-day session ended with a standing ovation by all delegates.

South Korea's unification minister, Chung Dong-young, went further, saying the agreement would serve as a first step towards dismantling the Cold War confrontation between the two Koreas.

Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said the proof would be in implementation.

"Whether this agreement helps solve this will depend in large measure on what we do in the days and weeks that follow," he told reporters. "We need to take the momentum of this agreement and work to see that it is implemented.

"We have to see this decision [by North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons] followed up on. We have to see implementation."

Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, agreed, saying: "We must secure specific agreements regarding the implementation of the agreed principles, particularly the specific sequence towards realisation of the abandonment of nuclear programs by North Korea and verification measures."

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said he welcomed the deal and hoped it would lead to an early return of UN inspectors to North Korea.

Lee Dong-bok, Seoul-based senior associate of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the statement had failed to bring about any real progress.

"It contains no more than agreements on some principles that help prevent the talks from collapsing and take them to the next round," he said.

Under the agreement, North Korea would have the right to a civilian nuclear program -- the main sticking point between Pyongyang and Washington -- if it regains international trust.

The US, backed by Japan, had argued that North Korea could not be trusted with atomic energy, but China, South Korea and Russia said that if Pyongyang scrapped its nuclear weapons and agreed to strict safeguards it could have such an energy program in future.

Failure to reach an agreement in Beijing could have prompted Washington to go to the UN Security Council and seek sanctions.

The North had said sanctions would be tantamount to war.

North Korea had demanded aid and security guarantees before it dismantled any of its nuclear programs, but Washington and Tokyo had wanted it to verifiably dismantle first.

The six parties agreed to hold a fifth round of talks in Beijing in November, but analysts had reservations about whether points of contention had been resolved.

Bob Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong, said: "I suspect anything they've signed is built around a philosophy of `show me first.'"

"The devil will be in the detail of who's allowed to go in when to inspect the status of North Korea's program. And you can bet there'll be some controversy around that," he said.

Delegation of Canadian MPs urged to support Taiwan

DPA , TAIPEI

President Chen Shui-bian on Monday urged Canada to pass a law to legalize its unofficial ties with Taipei.

"The Taiwan Affairs Act has passed first reading in the Canadian parliament and will be soon be put to second reading. We warmly welcome any move that can help strengthen substantive Taiwan-Canadian ties," Chen said while receiving a Canadian parliamentarian delegation at the Presidential Office.

The delegation included Canadian MPs from across the political spectrum: Peter Adams, an Ontario Liberal; Garry Breitkreuz, a Saskatchewan Conservative; Navdeep Bains, an Ontario Liberal; Lui Temelkovski, an Ontario Liberal; Mark Holland, an Ontario Liberal; James Bezan, a Manitoba Conservative; and Guy Cote from Bloc Quebecois.

Chen expressed gratitude to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin for telling Chinese President Hu Jintao that Canada is opposed to Beijing's use of force against Taiwan, and urged Canada to exempt visa requirements for Taiwanese tourists.

The Canadians did not have an immediate reponse to Chen's requests.

However, they said that they had been impressed by Taiwan's achievements in democratization and promised, upon their return to Canada, to strengthen relations between Taiwan and Canada.

The Taiwan Affairs Act was introduced by the House of Commons on April 4 by Jim Abbot, a Conservative member from British Columbia. It copied several provisions from the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) signed by the US Congress in 1979, but does not contain the defense clause that exists in the TRA.

On Sept. 9, Hu -- in his talks with Martin in Ottawa -- warned Canada not to pass the Taiwan Affairs Act because it would hurt Beijing-Ottawa ties.

China has warned foreign countries not to launch official ties with Taiwan, including receiving Taiwanese officials or passing laws on Taiwan.

MEDIA CONTROLS: Despite spending years attempting to woo Beijing, News Corp has only gained a toehold in China's restrictive market

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has accused authorities in Beijing of being paranoid after admitting plans to develop his empire in China have "hit a brick wall," the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Murdoch said Chinese authorities were no longer opening up their vast untapped market to international media companies, reversing their stance from a year ago.

The newspaper said Murdoch, who was speaking at a conference in New York organized by former US president Bill Clinton, said the Chinese authorities "were quite paranoid about what gets through."

Murdoch has spent years courting Chinese officials after angering them in 1993 by saying satellite TV posed an "unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere."

To appease authorities, News Corp pulled the BBC from its regional programming and its publishing operation canceled plans to put out a book by a former Hong Kong governor that was critical of China's government.

But so far News Corp has only a toehold in China, with a license to operate in Guangdong Province and in exclusive hotels.

Last month, Beijing scuppered plans by the company to expand its broadcasts in China.

A joint venture allowing the media giant to broadcast Channel V and Star TV through the Qinghai Satellite TV Station in northwest China fell foul of regulators, a News Corp executive said then.

The venture had operated for six months and could reach more than 100 million people in the provinces of Qinghai, Liaoning, Xinjiang as well as Chongqing and Beijing municipalities.

The company is also facing investigation into whether it has been illegally selling decoders inside China that allow viewers access to News Corp channels.

At the same conference, Dick Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, criticized Internet giant Yahoo's recent decision to pass documents to the Chinese government that led to the conviction of a local journalist, the Financial Times said.

The world's biggest media company, which is also active in China, said the authorities wanted to manage the opening of the country to foreign media at their own pace.

He said he had decided against distributing his AOL Internet business in China because the government wanted to monitor messages sent on the Internet service.

"We made a judgement it wasn't a market we wanted to enter at this time," he said.

Analysts said foreign media firms wanting access to China's growing market for content and programming may have to alter their expectations to conform with China's regulatory environment and market realities.

"[Media companies] have to abdicate [a] certain control to the regulators but this is not new, this has always been the case and this is the cost of doing business here," said Kristian Kender of Beijing-based China Media Monitor Intelligence.

"If you're a company here looking into selling programming or doing co-production, nothing has changed, those businesses are still there," Kender said.

MAKING CONNECTIONS: The ministry said it will provide a second round of aid to help the Iraqi education ministry and 14 schools get wired

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Mercy Corps, a US-based charity group, on the second phase of the "IT Action in Iraq" project in which Taiwan will continue helping in setting up computer equipment and Internet service in Iraq.

"In the spirit of humanity, Taiwan will do as much as we can to give back to the international society. We also hope the people in Iraq can feel the friendship from Taiwan," Minister Mark Chen said at the signing ceremony.

Even though Taiwan has been shut out of the UN for almost three decades, Taiwan has never hesitated to offer humanitarian aid to needy countries, Chen said.

In the first phase of the project, the government donated US$400,000 to Mercy Corps to establish an Internet Center in the Khanaqin district, which lies northeast of Baghdad.

That donation will be used to set up computer equipment and Internet services for Iraq's Ministry of Education and 14 junior and senior high schools.

The ministry added that the second phase will also include assistance in training personnel serving at the Internet Center, which began operations this past January.

The cooperative memorandum was signed by Maysing Yang, chairperson of the ministry's Research and Planning Committee and Diana Tsui, Mercy Corps' managing director for the east Asia and Pacific region.

Mercy Corps is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Portland, Seattle, Cambridge, Washington, D.C. and Edinburgh, Scotland. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided over US$1 billion in assistance to people in 81 nations.

Two Iraqi youth traveled to Taipei last December to attend a presentation on Taiwan's aid program and post-war relief work in Iraq.

Since the public networking center was completed in January, the officials said, Iraqi students have regularly exchanged e-mails with their Taiwan counterparts at 10 junior and senior high schools recommended by the Ministry of Education.

MORE TALKS: A ministry official said he will discuss the long-stalled US arms procurement bill with US officials at a US-Taiwan defense industry conference in California

Vice Minister of National Defense Huo Shou-yeh said Sunday in Los Angeles that he will communicate with US officials on contentious parts of the US arms procurement package when he attends the fourth US-Taiwan national defense industry conference that opened in San Diego, California yesterday.

Huo was referring to the long-stalled package comprising three big-ticket weaponry items -- eight diesel-electric submarines, a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft and three Patriot anti-missile batteries.

The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan has blocked the passage of the package for more than a year because opposition lawmakers say the price is too high and that it should be listed under the regular budget rather than a special one. At the request of opposition parties, the Executive Yuan has therefore removed the Patriot batteries from the proposed special budget and included them in the Ministry of National Defense's annual budget instead.

Huo, at the head of a delegation attending the conference, said that since the meeting's sponsor, the US-Taiwan Business Council, is a non-governmental organization, the discussions will also be non-official.

The two-day meeting will focus on studying the state of US-Taiwan military cooperation and the outlook for Taiwan's future defense needs, Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said Sunday.

More than 100 people are expected to take part in the conference, including academics from US and Taiwanese think tanks, military specialists in charge of military cooperation, weapons researchers and military officials.

Hammond-Chambers said that Richard Lawless, US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, will not be able to attend the conference because he is preoccupied with the six-party talks on North Korea.

When Lawless spoke at last year's conference in Phoenix, Arizona, he urged Taiwanese legislators from across the political spectrum to support the arms procurement in order to show the country's determination to defend itself.

Edward Ross, a director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency under the Department of Defense, will attend on his behalf. Ross will also read a speech prepared by Lawless.

Hammond-Chambers explained that he also invited Ho Szu-yin (何思因), director of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)'s overseas department, to the conference to learn about the party's national security policy.

He said conference participants will explore the national defense needs of Taiwan, and added that Taiwan has the final say in any purchase or acquisition of US arms.

Though Hammond-Chambers will visit Taiwan in the middle of next month, he said that the purpose of his trip differs from that of a group of US congressmen.

US Republican congressman Rob Simmons is arranging that delegation, which will be comprised primarily of members of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Armed Forces.

As a soldier in Taiwan's military, I have something to say about arms procurement, something that is different from the civilian's point of view.

Can you imagine -- or believe -- that we are using weapons that were made decades ago?

Although we are economically, politically and technically developed, there's still something that needs to be improved. Even China is buying weapons from Russia, isn't it? The joint exercise they conducted recently is obviously a threat at the doorstep.

Due to the lack of ability to produce certain kinds of advanced and sophisticated weaponry, we need other nations' assistance to protect our country from China. And I believe the moms and dads at home would be pleased to see that their boys have better weapons to secure them against getting injured while doing their duty.

The national defense budget is being downgraded year after year, while China is upgrading theirs in double digits from year to year.

Under the circumstances, we are desperately in need of support to purchase new weapons. I totally agree that the items bought should be considered carefully and the price should be reasonable and acceptable. But it is definitely a must to acquire better equipment than what we have now. The budget has been cut down, and I hope the legislators can think about the security we have to provide for Taiwan.

The Ministry of National Defense last Friday confirmed a piece of news concerning a Chinese Han-class nuclear-powered attack submarine that surfaced near our navy vessels and passed through waters off Kinmen in late June. The media focused on whether an alert was raised and whether the procedures the navy followed were appropriate.

In my opinion, there is something more significant for our compatriots to be heeding as China's navy is being rapidly developed, and they have purchased weapons abroad, mostly from Russia and the EU.

By 2010, China is expected to have 70 of the most modern surface vessels, several modern strategic nuclear submarines, and several tens of modernized attack submarines, exceeding the modern forces of both Taiwan's navy and even Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force.

To meet Taiwan's defense needs, the US agreed in 2001 to sell a robust package of weapons to Taiwan, including eight diesel-electric submarines, three Patriot PAC 3 anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft.

According to a report from the US Central Intelligence Agency, Taiwan's military spending last year accounted for about 2.6 percent of its GDP, far lower than China's ratio of 4.3 percent. The US defense spending ratio is about 3.5 percent of its GDP.

The US has urged Taiwan to accelerate its military modernization to prevent the cross-Taiwan Strait military balance from tilting further in favor of China by raising the defense budget to 3.5 percent of the GDP. Over the past few years, Taiwan's spending on national defense has only increase slightly while spending on the economy and social welfare has registered double-digit growth during the same period.

It is time for all people in Taiwan to reach a consensus on national security. Delay in approval of the special budget leaves Taiwan defenseless and will only encourage aggression.

The national defense is, in fact, everybody's responsibility. We are all in the same boat.

Hurricane Katrina created a disaster for New Orleans and a crisis for the entire US. No one ever expected that such a great nation would be in this state today. People are complaining about the slow response of the government, and how they were waiting so long for the military troops to come.

But the reason why the US military took so long to get there is that there are a lot of processes that have to take place, and they are not just bureaucratic processes either. Governors have the power to mobilize their state's national guard, and to bring in reinforcements from other states in a crisis. But the US military is prevented by law from acting in a domestic law enforcement role unless authorized by the president, something that has never happened before.

It reminds me of Taiwan. We see soldiers helping after a typhoon, a flood, an oil tanker wreckage, or even killing sick pigs. We take it for granted. But actually rescue work is never part of their job. Of course they are proud of being able to help. I just think that we might consider the hardship they bear and be grateful to them.

Hu Jintao, was elected by no one but his communist cronies. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a regime with one of the worst human rights record on earth in the history of mankind. Meanwhile Taiwan, with a democratically elected president, is shut out of the UN. Hu is speaking to the UN Assembly as if he represents the UN's spirit, its hope and its future. If that is the case, God help us, the UN and the world.

In your article "Bush changes topic after Hu asks for support on Taiwan," (Sept. 15, page 1), US President George W. Bush is too polite. When I was asked by a drunk street beggar in Chicago recently, "Do you have a quarter?" I asked him, "Do you have a dollar?" President Bush, too, should tell Hu: "Hands and missiles off Taiwan."

On your editorial "The United Nations boldly faces another challenger of change" (Sept. 14, page 9), Shashi Tharoor has argued in favor of the UN's accomplishments. But is the UN a bottle half full or half empty?

Hu seems to be a defining point. Truly, the UN is a mirror of our world. Yet if we are to let the world take its natural course in history, instead of interfering with the human spirit and civility, let the chips fall where they may, and we can do that well without the UN.

If we are to let thugs such as Hu direct the UN and orchestrate world peace, then the UN would do a whole lot worse than nothing. May God help us if that is to be the case.

Has the UN accomplished anything with the enormous resources it consumes and the opportunity it had after World War II? Paramount among the UN's accomplishments has to be its assistance in the liberation of a vast underclass of world citizens from their colonial masters.

Yet the UN's treatment of Taiwan is an abomination. Taiwan is a democratic nation with a free citizenry, a country that was liberated through its own citizens' determination, without UN support, and despite the UN's malice.

The UN is too busy supporting a totalitarian, uncivilized regime to demand the total submission of a people threatening the use of force, and threatening to annex a nation it has never even set foot on. On that score, the UN is a total failure.