Just Foreign Policy News October 20, 2006 No War with Iran: Petition Nearly 2900 people have signed the Just Foreign Policy/Peace Action petition through Just Foreign Policy's website. Please sign/circulate if you have not done so: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html
Just Foreign Policy on MySpace: If you have a MySpace account, add us: http://www.myspace.com/justforeignpolicy Just Foreign Policy News daily podcast: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/podcasts/podcast_howto.html Summary: U.S./Top News Growing doubts among GOP lawmakers about the administration's strategy and the prospect of Democratic wins in next month's elections will soon force the Bush administration to abandon its open-ended commitment to the war in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. The US military command in Iraq acknowledged Thursday its 12-week-old campaign to win back control of Baghdad from sectarian death squads and insurgents had failed to reduce violence across the city, the New York Times reports. In a news analysis, the Times writes that acknowledgment by the US Army spokesman that the latest plan to secure Baghdad has faltered leaves Bush with some of the ugliest choices he has faced in the war. Whatever choices he makes they will be forced by a series of events that seems largely out of his control. Representatives of a group of academics and writers rejected the Anti-Defamation League's invitation to discuss their charge that the ADL applied pressure to shut down a prominent critic of Israel's New York lecture, Jewish Week reports. In their letter, the critics wrote Foxman: "What does surprise and disturb us is that an organization dedicated to promoting civil rights and public education should threaten and exert pressure to cancel a public lecture by an important scholar." An American military propaganda campaign that planted favorable news articles in the Iraqi news media did not violate laws or Pentagon regulations, but it was not properly supervised by military officials in Baghdad, an audit by the Pentagon Inspector General has concluded. A federal judge ruled Thursday US courts did not have the authority to prohibit allied military forces in Iraq from transferring to the Iraqi government's custody an American citizen who has been sentenced to death. The U.S. public has become increasingly anxious about world events and the role their country is playing in them, according to a new survey. The survey found a substantial rise in concern about how the U.S. is perceived in the world. Nearly 90% of respondents said they considered it a threat to U.S. national security when "the rest of the world sees the US" in a negative light. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the world currently feels either "somewhat" or "very" negatively toward the country, while nearly four in five said they believe the country is seen as "arrogant". Going into the November midterm elections, seven in ten Americans say they prefer Congressional candidates who will pursue a new approach to U.S. foreign policy, the Program on International Policy Attitudes reports. Iran Britain said Thursday it expects a draft U.N. resolution on Iran to be introduced in the Security Council early next week and diplomats said it will seek sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. France, Britain and Germany were still discussing the text with the US on Thursday, and had not yet shown it to Russia and China. Iraq The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, AP reports. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's office has instructed the country's health ministry to stop providing mortality figures to the UN, jeopardizing a key source of information on the number of civilian war dead in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. Israel Unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank would get official government approval under a deal Israel's defense minister is working out, AP reports.. Lebanon The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah fired cluster munitions during its 33-day war with Israel last summer, in strikes that caused one death and 12 injuries, according to a report released this week by Human Rights Watch. North Korea China is prepared to step up pressure on North Korea in coming weeks by reducing oil shipments, among other measures, if the country refuses to return to negotiations or conducts more nuclear tests, the New York Times reports. The government of South Korea told Secretary of State Rice Thursday it had no intention of pulling out of an industrial zone and a tourist resort in North Korea, the New York Times reports. "We are not deviating from the international community only because we differ with a certain country," a security adviser for President Roh said, referring to the United States. Contents: U.S./Top News 1) Major Change Expected In Strategy for Iraq War Michael Abramowitz & Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, October 20, 2006; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901907.html Growing doubts among GOP lawmakers about the administration's Iraq strategy and the prospect of Democratic wins in next month's elections will soon force the Bush administration to abandon its open-ended commitment to the war, according to lawmakers in both parties and foreign policy experts. Senior figures in both parties are coming to the conclusion that the administration will be unable to achieve a stable, democratic Iraq within a politically feasible time frame. Agitation is growing for alternatives to the administration's strategy of keeping Iraq in one piece and getting its security forces running while 140,000 U.S. troops try to keep a lid on rapidly spreading sectarian violence. Democratic candidates are hammering Republican candidates for backing a failed Iraq policy, and GOP defense of the war is growing muted. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released this week showed that voters are more confident in Democrats' ability to handle the Iraq war than the Republicans' - a reversal from the last election. Interest appears to be growing in several broad ideas. One would be some kind of effort to divide the country along regional lines. Another, favored by many Democrats, is a gradual withdrawal of troops over a set period of time. A third would be a dramatic scaling-back of U.S. ambitions in Iraq, giving up on democracy and focusing on stability. Many senior Republicans also believe that essential to a successful strategy in Iraq are an aggressive new diplomatic initiative to secure a Middle East peace settlement and a new effort to engage Iraq's neighbors, such as Syria and Iran, in helping stabilize the country -- perhaps through an international conference. Many Senate Republicans are waiting for the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton. Both Baker and Hamilton have made it clear that they do not see the administration's current Iraq policy as working -- though they do not plan to issue recommendations until well after the midterm elections, probably in early January. White House officials describe current turmoil over Iraq policy in Washington as an expected byproduct of the upsurge in violence. Press secretary Snow yesterday dismissed a dramatic about-face in policy - such as a division of the country or phased withdrawal - as a "non-starter" and called the idea that the White House will seek a course correction in Iraq "a bunch of hooey." Bush has been adamant that the United States will not withdraw its troops until the Iraqi government can defend itself. There is growing frustration inside the U.S. military over Iraq, with some officers debating privately whether the situation there is salvageable. In recent weeks, senior military officers have offered a torrent of negative comments, a sharp contrast to the official optimism of the past three years. The demand for change on Iraq has been especially notable from inside the president's party: Sen. John Warner, chair of the Armed Services Committee, returned from Iraq saying that country was adrift and all options should be considered. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said this week that she is willing to consider breaking up Iraq. If Democrats take one or both houses of Congress next month, their views could become significant in shaping strategy. Sen. Carl Levin, who would take over the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee, said he favors beginning a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops that "gives the Iraqis notice that they're going to be looking into the abyss" unless they make necessary changes. A version of this option was presented to House Democrats by former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who outlined a four-step plan that would include a joint declaration by the U.S. and Iraqi governments on a timeline for the departure of U.S. troops, a follow-up international conference on stabilizing Iraq and a greater focus on economic reconstruction. The Iraq Study Group is also mulling a variant of the gradual withdrawal idea that would move U.S. troops out of Iraq but leave a residual force in the region to keep the violence from spreading and Iraq's neighbors from meddling. Another idea getting a closer look is a new power-sharing agreement that would give more power to autonomous regions - Kurdish in the north, Sunni in the middle and Shiite in the south - while weakening the central government. This idea is identified with Sen. Joseph Biden, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Because there is no oil in what would be the Sunni-controlled area, Biden envisions some sort of scheme to share oil revenue with the Sunnis to get them to agree to such a plan. 2) U.S. Says Violence in Baghdad Rises, Foiling Campaign John F. Burns, New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html The US military command in Iraq acknowledged Thursday its 12-week-old campaign to win back control of Baghdad from sectarian death squads and insurgents had failed to reduce violence across the city. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the campaign had been marked by increasing attacks on American troops and a spike in combat deaths. Attacks soared by 22 percent, he said, during the first three weeks of Ramadan, the holy month now nearing its end. With three new combat deaths announced on Thursday, the number of American troops who have lost their lives in October rose to 73, representing one of the sharpest surges in military casualties in the past two years. "The violence is indeed disheartening," Caldwell said. While the sweeps have contained violence in some areas, over all, he said, the campaign to gain control of the city "has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence." The American command's statement on the faltering campaign signified a new and jarring stage in 18 months of efforts to bring peace to Baghdad, with one military plan succeeding another, and none achieving more than a temporary decline in the violence that has made Baghdad the most bloody theater of the war. Senior officers have spoken of the campaign in "make or break" terms, saying that there would be little hope of prevailing in the wider war if the bid to retake Baghdad's streets failed. 3) Bush Faces a Battery of Ugly Choices on War David E. Sanger & David S. Cloud, New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/world/middleeast/20policy.html The acknowledgment by the US Army spokesman in Iraq that the latest plan to secure Baghdad has faltered leaves President Bush with some of the ugliest choices he has yet faced in the war. He can once again order a rearrangement of American forces inside the country, as he did in August, when American commanders declared that newly trained Iraqi forces would "clear and hold" neighborhoods with backup support from redeployed American forces. That strategy collapsed within a month, frequently forcing the Americans to take the lead, making them prime targets. There is no assurance, though, that another redeployment of those forces will reduce the casualty rate, which has been unusually high in recent weeks, senior military and administration officials say. The toll comes just before midterm elections, in which even many of his own party have given up arguing that progress is being made or that the killing will soon slow. Or Bush can reassess the strategy itself, perhaps listening to those advisers — including some members of the Iraq Study Group, who say he needs to redefine the "victory" that he again on Thursday declared was his goal. One official providing advice to the president noted Thursday that while Bush still insists his goal is an Iraq that "can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself," he has already dropped most references to creating a flourishing democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Or, he could take the advice of Senator McCain, who argues in favor of pouring more troops into Iraq, an option one senior administration official said recently might make sense but could "cause the bottom to fall out" of public support. But whatever choices he makes - probably not until after the Nov. 7 election, and perhaps not until the bipartisan group issues its report - they will be forced by a series of events, in Iraq and at home, that now seems largely out of Bush's control. 4) L'Affaire Judt Rattles ADL; High-Brows Snub Foxman 'We'll see you in The New York Review of Books,' they cry, not in private meeting. Larry Cohler-Esses, Jewish Week, 10/20/2006 http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13150 Representatives for a powerful roster of academics and writers this week rejected the Anti-Defamation League's invitation to meet and discuss their charge that the ADL applied pressure to shut down a prominent critic of Israel's New York lecture. Professors Mark Lilla and Richard Sennett, organizers of a protest letter to ADL signed by 113 intellectuals, rejected ADL's denial that it had not threatened or pressured the Polish Consulate to deny a platform to New York University historian Tony Judt. In a reply to ADL National Director Abraham Foxman's invitation to meet and discuss the matter, they wrote: "Precisely because providing a public forum for discussion was the matter in dispute - we do not think that the kind of private meeting you suggest would be appropriate." They instead invited Foxman to reply in writing in The New York Review of Books, which will publish their protest letter next week. Foxman is expected to do so. In their letter, the critics wrote Foxman: "What does surprise and disturb us is that an organization dedicated to promoting civil rights and public education should threaten and exert pressure to cancel a public lecture by an important scholar." 5) Pentagon Audit Clears Propaganda Effort Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/washington/20lincoln.html An American military propaganda campaign that planted favorable news articles in the Iraqi news media did not violate laws or Pentagon regulations, but it was not properly supervised by military officials in Baghdad, an audit by the Pentagon Inspector General has concluded. The report said that the secret program, run by the military in conjunction with the Lincoln Group, was lawful and that it did not constitute a "covert action" designed to influence the internal political conditions of another country. By law, only intelligence operatives, not the military, are authorized to carry out covert actions, and the government is authorized to deny publicly any knowledge of these activities. But the audit concluded that military officials in Baghdad violated federal contracting guidelines by failing to keep adequate records about the Lincoln Group's first propaganda contract — for $10.4 million, signed in September 2004. 6) U.S. Judge Says American Can Be Transferred to Iraqi Custody New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/washington/20transfer.html A federal judge ruled Thursday US courts did not have the authority to prohibit allied military forces in Iraq from transferring to the Iraqi government's custody an American citizen who has been sentenced to death. The judge, Royce Lamberth of US District Court, ruled that the man, Mohammed Munaf, was not being held directly by the US, but by the multinational force created by UN resolutions. As a result, Lamberth ruled, Munaf has no recourse to American courts. Munaf, who was born in Iraq and became a US citizen in 2000, traveled to Iraq in March 2005 to act as an interpreter and guide for 3 Romanian journalists. The journalists were kidnapped and held for 55 days. After they were freed, Munaf was detained and accused of being involved in the kidnapping, and on Oct. 12 he was sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge. In a similar case involving US citizen charged with a crime in Iraq, a different federal judge ruled US courts did have jurisdiction because the multinational force was under the effective control of the US military and any distinction was a legalistic fiction. 7) Poll of US Public Finds Growing Anxiety About World Affairs Jim Lobe, lnter Press Service, Thursday, October 19, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1019-01.htm The U.S. public has become increasingly anxious about world events and the role their country is playing in them, according to the latest "Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy" survey released here Wednesday by Public Agenda and Foreign Affairs journal. The survey, overseen by pollster Daniel Yankelovich, found a substantial rise in concern about how the U.S. is perceived in the world and particularly in predominantly Muslim countries, compared to the survey conducted in January. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they considered it a threat to U.S. national security when "the rest of the world sees the US" in a negative light. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the world currently feels either "somewhat" or "very" negatively toward the country, while nearly four in five said they believe the country is seen as "arrogant". Fears about terrorism and Islamic extremism have also increased markedly over the past year, according to the survey, while concern about Iraq, while relatively stable over the same period, remains sufficiently high to be considered at a "tipping point"; that is, an issue on which public opinion is so intense that politicians cannot afford to ignore it. According to virtually all political analysts, public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war has become by far single biggest obstacle to Republican chances of retaining control of both houses of Congress in the Nov. 7 elections. Polls this month have consistently shown that nearly two-thirds of the public disapprove of the way Bush is handling the war. According to Yankelovich, a tipping point is reached when the vast majority of the public says they are concerned about an issue, with more than 50 percent insisting that they are a concerned "a lot", and when majorities believe that the government can do something about it. According to the latest survey, 55 percent say they worry "a lot" about the casualty toll in Iraq. While the survey found growing concern about alienating foreign - particularly Muslim - opinion and stronger support for diplomacy and cooperating more with other countries on a range of issues, it also suggested more intense public backing for preemptive attacks against countries developing weapons of mass destruction. It also found that 70 percent of respondents believed that criticism of the U.S. for being too pro-Israel to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace was either "totally" or "partially" justified, a notable increase from previous surveys. 8) Seven in Ten Americans Favor Congressional Candidates Who Will Pursue a Major Change in Foreign Policy U.S. Public Wants Less Emphasis on Military Force, More on Working Through U.N. A Majority Supports Direct Talks with North Korea and Iran World Public Opinion, Program on International Policy Attitudes, October 20th, 2006 http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/262.php Going into the November midterm elections, seven in ten Americans say they prefer Congressional candidates who will pursue a new approach to U.S. foreign policy. A new nationwide survey finds a large and growing majority of Americans is dissatisfied with the position of the US in the world. Most Americans believe that U.S. policies are increasing the threat of terrorist attack and decreasing goodwill toward the United States. The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)/WPO poll also finds that large majorities of Americans feel that the US puts too much emphasis on military force and unilateral action. Most say they want their member of Congress to work to shift the emphasis of U.S. foreign policy in favor of diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, and homeland security. Iran 9) Britain Says U.N. Iran Resolution Coming Associated Press, October 20, 2006, Filed at 12:04 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Iran-Nuclear.html Britain said Thursday it expects a draft U.N. resolution on Iran to be introduced in the Security Council early next week and diplomats said it will seek sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. France's U.N. Ambassador had said Tuesday he hoped to circulate a draft by the end of the week. But France, Britain and Germany, who have led negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, were still discussing the text with the US on Thursday, and had not yet shown it to Russia and China. The US has called for broad sanctions, such as a total ban on missile and nuclear technology sales, while the Russians and Chinese back prohibitions of selected items as a first step. Iraq 10) Shiite Militia Seizes Control of Iraqi City Associated Press, October 20, 2006, Filed at 8:14 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation the prime minister's media adviser told AP. The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said. About 800 militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said. Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors. Fighting broke out in Amara on Thursday after the head of police intelligence in the surrounding province, a member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb, prompting his family to kidnap the teenage brother of the local head of the a-Madhi Army. The Mahdi Army seized several police stations and clamped a curfew on the city in retaliation. At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, have been killed in clashes since Friday, Dr. Zamil Shia, director of Amarah's department of health, said by telephone from Amarah. The events in the city highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis. 11) Iraq Aims to Limit Mortality Data Health Ministry Told Not to Release Civilian Death Toll to U.N. Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Friday, October 20, 2006; A16 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901799.html Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's office has instructed the country's health ministry to stop providing mortality figures to the UN, jeopardizing a key source of information on the number of civilian war dead in Iraq, according to a U.N. document. A confidential cable from the UN's top official in Baghdad, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said the Iraqi prime minister is seeking to exercise greater control over the release of the country's politically sensitive death toll. U.N. officials expressed concern the move threatens to politicize the process of counting Iraq's dead and muddy international efforts to gain a clear snapshot of the scale of killing in Iraq. Qazi warned in the cable that the development "may affect" the UN's ability to adequately record the number of civilians killed or wounded in the Iraq war as it endures a bloody new phase of sectarian violence. He said U.N. human rights workers would have "no guaranteed means to corroborate" figures provided by the government. The ongoing debate over the Iraqi death toll was reignited this month after a team of Iraqi and American epidemiologists estimated 650,000 more people have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 than would have died if the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime had not occurred. Those figures, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, were dismissed by the US and Britain as inflated. President Bush said in December that 30,000 civilians have died as a result of the war; the group Iraq Body Count yesterday posted an estimate of between 43,937 and 48,783 civilian deaths. The Iraqi government has resisted efforts by U.N. officials and human rights workers to obtain reliable government figures on mortality. But since July 2005, the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which is controlled by the Iraqi health ministry, has supplied U.N. investigators with raw figures from morgues on civilians who have died violently. The health ministry's department of operation has provided the UN with similar figures from the country's hospitals. Those numbers attracted relatively little attention until June, when the U.N. human rights office in Baghdad estimated that more than 100 people a day were dying in Iraq. In August, the office recorded the largest spike of violence since the invasion, with more than 6,600 people killed in Iraq in July and August. A spokesman for the prime minister subsequently voiced suspicion to the UN that the health ministry, which is controlled by officials linked to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was overstating the numbers, according to Qazi. Iraq's health minister appealed to the prime minister to allow his agency to continue providing the UN and the U.S.-led military coalition with "data on the dead and wounded," according to Qazi. That request was denied. Qazi sought to defend the U.N. efforts, noting that Maliki confirmed that 100 civilians were dying each day. He also noted that the Brookings Institution characterized the U.N. estimates as "perhaps the most accurate estimate of the number of civilians killed and wounded in Iraq." Israel 12) Talks Could Lead to Approval of West Bank Settler Outposts Associated Press, Friday, October 20, 2006; A18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901835.html Unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank would get official government approval under a deal Israel's defense minister is working out, government officials and settlers said Thursday. Defense Minister Amir Peretz is negotiating with settler leaders on a deal to take down some of the outposts, move others and give authorization to the rest, according a spokeswoman for the settlers. The Defense Ministry confirmed that talks with settler leaders are taking place and would continue, saying Peretz initiated them to defuse tension and allow the evacuation of illegal outposts to proceed. However, the ministry said in a statement that the talks were "not negotiations, but dialogue" and that no agreements had been reached. "We are not negotiating over the enforcement of the law," the ministry said. Settlers began building outposts in the early 1990s, when Israel declared an official settlement freeze as part of the Oslo process. Today there are more than 100 such outposts, which were built against the law though often with the tacit or active participation of government offices and with government funds. A deal that leaves significant numbers of outposts in place could constitute a violation of Israel's commitments under the internationally backed "road map" plan. Israel said it would dismantle all outposts built after 2001 as part of the plan, but so far has removed only a few, and most of those were rebuilt. Lebanon 13) Cluster Weapons Used by Hezbollah Rights Group Cites 1 Death, 12 Injuries In War With Israel Nora Boustany, Washington Post, Friday, October 20, 2006; A18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901825.html The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah fired cluster munitions during its 33-day war with Israel last summer, in strikes that caused one death and 12 injuries, according to a report released this week by Human Rights Watch. The group expressed alarm over the rising supply of these controversial weapons to non-state armed groups. "We are disturbed to discover that not only Israel but also Hezbollah used cluster munitions in the recent conflict, at a time when many countries are turning away from this kind of weapon precisely because of its impact on civilians," said Steve Goose, the director of the Human Rights Watch Arms Division. "Use of cluster munitions is never justified in civilian-populated areas because they are inaccurate and unreliable," he said. Cluster munitions endanger civilians by spreading bomblets over a wide radius, causing casualties and leaving unexploded duds that often kill or maim after a military conflict has ended. While the weapons are not banned under international law, humanitarian groups argue that their use is not justified in inhabited areas. North Korea 14) China May Press North Koreans Joseph Kahn, New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/world/asia/20china.html China is prepared to step up pressure on North Korea in coming weeks by reducing oil shipments, among other measures, if the country refuses to return to negotiations or conducts more nuclear tests, Chinese government advisers and scholars who have discussed the matter with the leadership say. Washington has urged Chinese leaders to use all the tools at their disposal to put additional pressure on Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader. Among the most potent of those tools is oil. China provides an estimated 80 to 90 percent of North Korea's oil imports, shipped by pipeline at undisclosed prices that Chinese officials say represent a steep discount from the world market price. Any reduction in that aid could severely hamper North Korea's already faltering economy. Several leading Chinese experts said senior officials had indicated in the past week that they planned to slap new penalties on North Korea going beyond the ban on sales of military equipment imposed by the UN . But they would be likely to hold off if Kim agreed to return soon to multilateral talks North Korea has boycotted since September 2005. Discussions about how to respond to the nuclear test, which was described by one expert as a "political earthquake" for Chinese leaders, come amid a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ironing out enforcement of UN sanctions and luring Kim back to negotiations. 15) South Korea Tells Rice It Won't Abandon Industrial and Tourist Ventures With North Thom Shanker & Martin Fackler, New York Times, October 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/world/asia/20rice.html The government of South Korea told Secretary of State Rice Thursday it had no intention of pulling out of an industrial zone and a tourist resort in North Korea, even though the operations put hard currency into the pocket of its government. The South Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, said he had explained "the positive aspects" of the industrial park at Kaesong and described how the tourism zone around Mount Kumgang was "a very symbolic project" for reconciliation between the Koreas. While the US has long called for further isolating North Korea to discourage its nuclear ambitions, South Korea has taken a different course. Its decade-old policy of engagement has aimed to ensure peace on the peninsula by opening North Korea to trade, investment and economic interdependence. The nuclear test raised calls in South Korea to re-examine the policy. But officials have said the UN sanctions will not end broad economic and trade contacts with North Korea, a stand backed by South Korean public opinion. State Department officials describe the tourism zone in particular as a conduit for cash for North Korean leaders. The project, which opens a revered mountain site and hot springs to foreign visitors, has earned North Korea more than $456.9 million in precious hard currency, said its South Korean developers, Hyundai Asan. On Wednesday, Song Min-soon, a security adviser for President Roh, replied that the project "is not a policy to be changed following somebody's order to do this or that." "We are not deviating from the international community only because we differ with a certain country," he told reporters. "I'm not going to name that country," he added, though the context made it clear he was referring to the US. -------- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming U.S. foreign policy so that it reflects the values and interests of the majority of Americans.
