Extracts. Russia, DPRK Agree on Kim Jong Il's Visit to Moscow in April DPRK leader Kim Jong Il has accepted an invitation to visit Moscow in April, South Korea's state Yonhap news agency reported Sunday. Kim will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had invited him to visit when the pair met in Pyongyang last July, Yonhap said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources. Officials at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, which Yonhap said was notified of the visit by the Russian government late last month, were not available to confirm the report on Sunday. A visit by the North Korean leader to Russia would be the latest in a series of diplomatic moves by the nation. Last month, Kim Jong Il visited China to meet President Jiang Zemin and other top Chinese officials and inspect industrial facilities. It was his second trip to China in less than eight months and raised speculation that the North may try to imitate China and further open up to the outside world. North Korea has established diplomatic relations with eight European nations, Australia and the Philippines since last year. The United States, Canada and Japan are also in talks to improve relations with the North. The once-close relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang cooled after the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. In 1995, Russia opted out of a defense agreement with the North and pursued stronger links with South Korea. **** Libyans Protest Against Lockerbie Verdict Carrying anti-U.S. banners, 5,000 people marched to U.N. offices on Saturday(Feb.3) over the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent in the Lockerbie trial, and one of the demonstrators stabbed himself in protest. On Friday, Moammar Gadhafi said the man condemned to at least 20 years in prison for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing is as innocent as a second suspect who was acquitted. **** Falun Gong NEITHER Religion NOR Qigong: Human Rights Specialist Chinese human rights specialist Yu Pinhua said Falun Gong practitioners are in fact deprived of the fundamental rights to live, develop and think freely by Falun Gong and its fallacies. Yu, a member of China Human Rights Society and also a research fellow with Jiangxi <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/jiangxi.html> Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said the televised suicidal act by seven Falun Gong practitioners from central China's Henan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/henan.html> Province, who set themselves on fire, further exposes a fact that Falun Gong is a cult, not a religion, nor the health-enhancing Qigong because Falun Gong followers, with their minds controlled by fallacies of Falun Gong, usually can not have the thinking abilities and the sense of normal people. While comparing the features of religions with the destructive nature of cults in the world, the fallacies of Falun Gong not encouraging people with illnesses to see doctors or take medicine and that Qigong with the sole purpose to improve health, Yu defended Chinese government's decision to outlaw the cult in July 1999. "Outlawing the cult Falun Gong is intended to protect the fundamental human rights of the general public including those who are following the Falun Gong," said the research fellow, who also lashed out at western countries for having a double standard on the issue of human rights and the treatment of cults. **** Beijing Makes Development Plan for New Century Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> has made a development plan for the 21st century, said Liu Qi, the capital city's mayor on Saturday in Beijing. Liu outlined the plan on the fourth session of the 11th Municipal People's Congress, which started Saturday. According to the plan, Beijing will lead other Chinese cities to become the first in realizing modernization by 2010 and spend the following 40 years to become a top international metropolis. It is crucial for the capital city to realize a 9 percent annual growth rate from 2001 to 2005 in order to reach the long- term goal. The expected gross domestic product (GDP) will reach some 370 billion yuan (approximately 44.6 billion US dollars) by 2005, said Liu. Liu said that Beijing will invest some 180 billion yuan (21.7 billion US dollars) to improve the city's transportation and environmental protection system in the coming five years. The mayor held that a sound ecosystem is a must to facilitate Beijing's economic development. In the following five years, approximately 45 billion yuan (5.4 billion US dollars) will be used to better the environment of the capital city, which has been known for its bad air pollution for years. **** Eco-Environment to Top Beijing's Urban Construction List Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> , the national capital, is striving to build itself into an eco-friendly metropolis where man co-exists harmoniously with the nature. Eco-environment should top the list of Beijing's urban construction projects, said people's deputies and government officials attending the ongoing fourth session of the 11th Beijing Municipal People's Congress. Like many other world cities, Beijing is plagued by such problems as population explosion, air pollution, traffic jam, and particularly water shortage. Aware of the importance of the eco-environment, the municipal government invested 1.1 billion yuan in 1998 to dredge and broaden the city's rivers. To date, a 50-kilometer-long river system, which runs through the city proper, has become a tourist attraction. According to a work report delivered at the session, Beijing boasted a forest coverage rate of 43 percent in 2000, up 7 percent over 1996. **** Grassroots Structural Reform Urged The structural reform of China's grassroots institutions should be stepped up, said Wang Zhongyu, State Councilor and Secretary-general of the State Council in Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> at the conclusion of a two-day national conference on structural reforms at county and township levels. He said the structural reform, a vital part of the country's overall reform package in 2001, will help nurture a contingent of high-calibre personnel, reduce administrative costs, alleviate burdens on farmers, and improve work efficiency at county and township administrations. The structural reform is "an important strategic move" for China's socialist construction and it is closely related to the interests of the people, according to the official. He stressed that departments concerned should pay greater attention to those who are laid off in the course of the structural reform, and ensure that those people be brought under the protection of China's social security system. **** China to host APEC officials session Feb 11-19 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum 2001 host China will hold the first APEC meeting this month amid concerns about the US economy and disputes about the pace of trade liberalisation, China Daily <http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/> quoted a Chinese official on Friday. The February 11-19 gathering in Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> of more than 500 senior officials from the 21-member economic grouping sets the stage for a series of meetings in China culminating in an informal summit of APEC leaders in Shanghai <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/Shanghai.html> in October. Chinese Foreign Ministry <http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/> official Wu Hailong told reporters APEC economies were concerned "about whether the US economy can achieve a soft landing and about problems in the development of the new economy". But Wu said that despite concerns about the slowing economy in the region's biggest export market, "the economic situation in the Asia-Pacific area is, on the whole, stable and the possibility of a crisis is low". He said China expected APEC would give impetus to the launch of a new round of trade talks under the World Trade Organisation, but that the 12-year-old APEC faced a schism over its priorities and over the pace of trade and investment liberalisation. "Some members are stressing trade and investment liberalisation and want to make it the priority area," Wu said. Those members wanted to achieve the goals set out in Bogor in Indonesia <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/indonesia.html> in 1994, when APEC declared itself committed to the goal of free and open markets within its developed members by 2010 and in developing economies by 2020, he said. "Others disagree, saying that when the targets were set in 1994, Asian economies had not yet experienced the Asian financial crisis, and this must be taken into consideration," he said. The United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> , Australia <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/Australia.html> and other APEC advocates of freer trade say the removal of tariffs, barriers to business and restrictions on the movement of goods and on the provision of services will bring prosperity to all. But Malaysia <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/Malaysia.html> and other developing economies in APEC want a slower pace of liberalisation and say efforts to boost technological training and narrow the so-called digital divide between the hi-tech haves and have-nots should take precedence. **** Chinese Premier on Rural Structural Reform Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/Zhurongji.htm> and vice-president Hu Jintao <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/vpresident.html> called for better effort to deepen structural reform of China's grassroots institutions Friday in Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> . The Chinese leaders made their speeches at the national conference on rural structural reforms. Zhu said that structural reform is a vital component of the country's overall reform framework in 2001 and also constitutes an indispensable guarantee for healthy development of the national economy. The Premier also said that structural reform is an important strategic move for China's socialist construction and it is closely related to the interests of common people. Phenomena existing in the country's rural institutions, such as bureaucracy, superposition and overlapping, pose great dangers to the sound operation of China's socialist market economy and the close relation between the Chinese Communist Party and the people. An unhealthy structure of China's rural institutions may also help breed corruption. Therefore, it is a necessary endeavor to conduct structural reform of the country's grassroots institutions, Zhu said. Hu Jintao said that reforming the structure of the nation's rural institutions is a must in consolidating the Party and concretely implementing President Jiang Zemin <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/jzm/jzmhome.htm> 's remarks on Party building. Hu said that structural reform will facilitate optimizing the team of public servants, reduce administrative costs, alleviate financial burdens, and improve work efficiency. Zeng Qinghong, an alternate member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, presided over the meeting. Chinese State Councilor and secretary-general of the State Council Wang Zhongyu, and a number of senior Party and government officials from the central and provincial levels were present at the meeting. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
