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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 SEOUL 000502 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US
SUBJECT: SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; March 30, 2009 
 
TOP HEADLINES 
-------------- 
 
Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Dong-a Ilbo, All TVs 
Kim Yu-na Wins First World Championship Title, 
the First Female Skater to Score More Than 200 Points 
 
Hankook Ilbo 
'Student Loan Defaulters' Number 10,000 
 
Hankyoreh Shinmun 
Chong Wa Dae Officials Suspected of Receiving Sex Service 
 
Segye Ilbo 
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: 
North Korea Launch Will Go Before U.N. 
 
Seoul Shinmun 
Banks Tighten Mortgage Loan Standards 
 
 
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 
--------------------- 
 
The ROK's Chief Delegate to the Six-Party Talks Wi Sung-lac met with 
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth 
and U.S. and Japanese counterparts Sung Kim and Akitaka Saiki.  Wi 
told reporters that the envoys "discussed how we can deal with the 
rocket issue at the (UN) Security Council." (JoongAng, Seoul, All 
TVs) 
 
An ROK expert say that the UN Security Council might not be able to 
impose sanctions against North Korea after its rocket launch due to 
China and Russia's lukewarm stance. (Hankook, Hankyoreh) 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL NEWS 
------------------ 
 
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that North Korea 
probably will launch a missile soon and the U.S. will not shoot it 
down.  Gates says the U.S. believes the North's long-term intent is 
to try to put a nuclear warhead atop a missile but he is skeptical 
that the North has that ability at present.  (Chosun, JoongAng, 
Dong-a, Hankyoreh, Seoul, Segye, All TVs) 
 
The official North Korean newspaper Rodong Shinmun reported on March 
29 that if North Korea's rocket launch is brought to the UN Security 
Council, the North will take "stronger actions."   Experts say that 
North Korea may hint at the possibility of conducting a second 
nuclear test. (Chosun) 
 
An ROK researcher says that the launch date of North Korean rocket 
will depend on weather conditions. (Dong-a)  Considering the weather 
forecast, the launch is expected to take place sometime between 
April 6 and 8. (Hankook) 
 
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Steven Bosworth 
on March 28 indirectly expressed his willingness to meet North 
Korean leader Kim Jong-il. (Dong-a) 
 
 
MEDIA ANALYSIS 
-------------- 
 
-North Korea 
------------ 
 
Most of the ROK media gave prominent play to remarks by the U.S. 
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that North Korea will probably 
launch a missile soon and the U.S. will not shoot it down.  The ROK 
media reported that Gates said the U.S. believes the North's 
long-term intent is to try to put a nuclear warhead atop a missile 
 
SEOUL 00000502  002 OF 008 
 
 
but he is skeptical that the North has that ability at present. 
Right-of-center JoongAng Ilbo noted that the U.S. stepped back from 
its earlier position to shoot down any rocket from North Korea 
apparently because it could bring negative international 
repercussions and might backfire on the U.S. if it fails.  JoongAng 
Ilbo said that shooting down a rocket flying outside the atmosphere 
could be considered a violation of (established) international 
practices and may invite backlash from the international community. 
The newspaper went on to say that this position by the U.S. also 
stemmed from China and Russia's lukewarm stance toward possible 
sanctions over the North's rocket launch.  JoongAng Ilbo said that 
experts are skeptical about the chance of success of interception. 
If the U.S. fails in an attempt to shoot down a rocket from North 
Korea, this will cause the U.S. to lose face in the international 
community, according to the newspaper. 
 
In a related development, JoongAng Ilbo reported that the ROK's 
Chief Delegate to the Six-Party Talks, Wi Sung-lac, met with U.S. 
Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth and 
U.S. and Japanese counterparts Sung Kim and Akitaka Saiki.  The 
newspaper commented that Wi told reporters that the envoys 
"discussed how we can deal with the rocket issue at the (U.N.) 
Security Council."  Moderate Seoul Shinmun said that the chief 
nuclear envoys from the ROK, the U.S., and Japan discussed bringing 
North Korea's rocket launch to the UN Security Council, saying that 
any rocket launch is in violation of the UN resolution.  The 
newspaper stated, however, that it is unlikely that the UN will take 
strong countermeasures since China and Russia are said to be opposed 
to any further sanctions if it is a satellite launch.   Hankyoreh 
Shinmun echoed this observation that the UN. Security Council might 
find it difficult to devise countermeasures against the North's 
rocket launch due to China and Russia's passive attitude. 
 
Meanwhile, Conservative Chosun Ilbo noted that the official North 
Korean newspaper Rodong Shinmun reported on March 29 that if North 
Korea's rocket launch is brought to the UN Security Council, the 
North will take "stronger actions."  Experts say that North Korea 
may hint at the possibility of conducting a second nuclear test. 
Observers say that the threat from North Korean (to take stronger 
actions if the issue is brought before the UN) shows that North 
Korea intends to push ahead with a rocket launch despite outside 
pressures.  The newspaper went on to say that observers see this as 
a preemptive effort by the North to minimize the possibility of 
strong UN sanctions after its rocket launch.  Others view this 
threat as an indication that North Korea intends to nullify the 
Six-Party Talks and seek practical gains in North Korea-U.S. direct 
talks. 
 
Chosun Ilbo editorialized: The international community should call 
on North Korea to put an end to all kinds of acts jeopardizing peace 
and stability.  Also, it should warn North Korea that it will pay a 
price for what it does.  China and Russia should play an important 
role in this effort to block North Korea's series of provocative 
actions.  North Korea is claiming that the launch is a 'satellite' 
launch, but the launch is apparently a disguise to demonstrate the 
North's long-range missile technology.  North Korea's missile threat 
has intensified tensions on the Korean Peninsula and put the U.S. 
and Japan on a high alert.  Definitely, this will not be beneficial 
for China and Russia.  The ROK, the U.S. and Japan should intensify 
their diplomatic efforts (with China and Russia) to oppose North 
Korea's planned rocket launch with the understanding that the 
participation of China and Russia will determine the success of the 
international community's concerted efforts. 
 
 
OPINIONS/EDITORIALS 
-------------------- 
 
SPRINGTIME FOR ASSEMBLY 
(JoongAng Ilbo, March 30, 2009, Page 47) 
 
By Lee Hong-koo, former Prime Minister and adviser to JoongAng Ilbo 
 
Koreans know that a long alliance between Korea and the United 
 
SEOUL 00000502  003 OF 008 
 
 
States will be in our interest. 
 
The National Assembly is a portrait of who we are, as the 
legislators are elected by the people.  So rather than censure the 
crippled operation of the Assembly, politicians and the people 
should explore a new way forward for Korean politics through 
reflection and the sharing of wisdom. 
 
To this end, we should not get locked in a spiritual prison and 
become slaves of the past.  When the occasion demands, we should 
have the courage to remove our deep-rooted obstinacy, grudges, 
regrets, prejudice and convictions. 
 
Among recently democratized nations, the courageous deeds of 
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has achieved 
remarkable success, serve as a model for others. 
 
He started as a labor leader and gave up the ideology he had pursued 
for many years, concentrating all his energy on improving people's 
welfare and helping low-income earners.  He has encouraged people to 
take pride in the nation's development and he has created a growth 
engine to bolster the simultaneous development of national politics 
and economy. 
 
The outcome has been splendid.  It was achieved by focusing on the 
question: "With whom can we cooperate to succeed?" rather than 
"Against whom will we fight?" 
 
However, we are still trapped in a historic confrontation, and we 
have not yet found any agreement on resolving the special political 
task of how we can produce a far-reaching agreement with North Korea 
and the United States. 
 
As for the recent shape of Korean politics, we have seen some 
progress thanks to compromise and agreement. 
 
However, the political community has failed to accept the logic of 
recent events and sees this kind of progress as an impediment to the 
nation's development. 
 
The assertion that politics fails to encourage social integration 
but hampers development and contributes to something that could 
break the nation into factions is persuasive. 
 
The people have achieved a considerably high level of consensus 
about the capacity of our political community. 
 
What then is their perception of North Korea and the United States? 
 
Korean society has accumulated a high degree of understanding and 
showed swift adaptation to new situations in terms of the duality of 
the South-North confrontation, which has lasted more than 60 years. 
 
 
The two Koreas have maintained a sharp confrontation about identity 
and the security of their respective regimes.  Nevertheless they 
should cooperate with each other to achieve unification of the 
Korean Peninsula and guarantee the welfare of all 70 million 
Koreans. 
 
Many people understand the duality of the situation facing the two 
Koreas. 
 
The majority of South Koreans accept the following as objective 
facts that have nothing to do with specific ideologies. 
 
One is that the two Koreas are confronted with a huge gap in 
economic growth; and North Korea is vulnerable in terms of freedom, 
human rights and openness as well. 
 
In addition, the North's military and political stance, in 
particular its nuclear and missile development, pose a threat to 
peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. 
 
 
SEOUL 00000502  004 OF 008 
 
 
Some people insist that we should risk waging a war to destroy the 
North Korean regime in order to achieve the kind of reunification 
that fits their vision, while others argue that we should join hands 
with the North's leadership regardless of such basic values as 
freedom, human rights, and anti-dictatorship. 
 
Both of these dangerous extremes should be firmly blocked at this 
point. 
 
The political community has divided the people in their attitudes 
toward the United States into two extremes.  Divisive politics of 
this sort have to be stopped.  The Korean people know that a 
long-term alliance between Korea and the U.S. will be in our 
interest, and not the other way around. 
 
The U.S. is our closest ally, with more than 2 million ethnic 
Koreans living there, expatriates who make a huge contribution to 
Korea's security and economic growth. 
 
Two decades after the Cold War, as the era of the United States as 
the earth's only superpower draws to a close, Korea needs this 
special relationship to be sustained, not allowed to weaken. 
 
Korea-U.S. relations should no longer be used as a tool to divide 
the people, appealing to anachronistic sentiments such as 
superiority or inferiority under the pretext of nationalism. 
 
Such evil practices should be uprooted. 
 
The National Assembly will convene in April.  If politicians decide 
to turn over a new leaf and act more responsibly, the people of this 
country will be impressed, despite all the recent hardships. 
 
I hope that politicians will run the National Assembly in a 
productive manner to win public support and secure the confidence of 
the people. 
 
We have to hear the cry "We can do everything!" and truly believe 
that it is coming from the heart, and that it is not just an empty 
slogan. 
 
(This is a translation provided by the newspaper, and it is 
identical to the Korean version.) 
 
 
U.S. INITIATIVE OF TRILATERAL TALKS SIGNALS DANGER FOR S. KOREA 
(Hankyoreh Shinmun, March 30, 2009, Page 23) 
 
By Executive Editor Jang Jung-soo 
 
On February 19 Morton Abramowitz of the Century Foundation 
contributed an op-ed piece in the International Herald Tribune and 
Japan's Asahi Shimbun titled "U.S., Japan, China must meet 
trilaterally."  (When all is said), the point he seeks to make is 
that the Northeast Asia region is the world's most dynamic, and that 
the United States should work closely with the world's second and 
third greatest economic powers, China and Japan, in order to build 
new American leadership here.  To that end, he says U.S. President 
Barack Obama should invite the leaders of those two countries for a 
trilateral summit. 
 
Abramowitz served as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence 
and Research during the Reagan Administration, and he accompanied 
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, U.S. Special Representative for North 
Korea Policy, in a visit to North Korea February 3-7 in the capacity 
of a civilian representative.  He is considered someone with no 
small amount of influence on the Obama Administration's foreign 
policy. 
 
East Asia experts in the U.S., China, and Japan have suggested 
trilateral talks for years now.  Bosworth and his close colleague 
Abramowitz are two among those experts.  Kurt Campbell, a former 
Defense Department official who has been recently asked to become 
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, has 
 
SEOUL 00000502  005 OF 008 
 
 
also openly called for a trilateral summit. 
 
Abramowitz's op-ed piece places the South Korean government in an 
uncomfortable position.  It is assumed that it comes from 
consultation with other members of the U.S. administration. 
 
South Korea's foreign ministry is said to have mobilized various 
diplomatic channels to tell the U.S. and Japan that it thinks the 
type of trilateral summit proposed would be a bad thing.  Given how 
since his inauguration President Lee Myung-bak has spent great 
diplomatic efforts on strengthening the U.S.-South Korean alliance, 
a trilateral summit between the U.S., China, and Japan would by 
itself be taken as an insulting and threatening initiative.  South 
Korea would become a helpless bystander if the U.S., which 
essentially governs the world, and the strongest countries in this 
region, China and Japan, were to join hands and exclude Seoul as 
they discuss the major issues of the Northeast Asian region, 
including their responses to the North Korean nuclear issue and the 
changing situation there. 
 
Key to this proposed initiative is U.S. policy towards China that is 
undergoing transformation within the Obama Administration.  The Bush 
Administration tried to join with Japan, India, and Australia in 
what was a containment policy towards the Chinese.  Now the U.S. is 
trying to embrace China as a strategic partner, establishing common 
control of the Northeast Asian region.  The U.S. is faced with the 
desperate reality that reviving the U.S. economy will be impossible 
without the cooperation of its largest creditors.  It has long 
worked behind the scenes to try to resolve the confrontation between 
China and Japan, something that would pose an obstacle to any 
trilateral framework.  When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was 
inaugurated three years ago, he broke with convention and did not 
make Washington his first foreign trip.  Instead, he went to China, 
at Washington's recommendation. 
 
Given how China has been disapproving of Seoul's pro-U.S. turn with 
the arrival of the Lee Myung-bak Administration, it is quite 
possible China could place more weight on trilateral talks that 
exclude South Korea than on the Six-Party Talks, a framework that 
has Seoul, Tokyo and Washington working closely together. 
Naturally, South Korea maintains relations with its ally, the U.S., 
and with Japan in order to work out the common concern of North 
Korean nuclear arms.  Neither North nor South Korea find it 
desirable to have issues facing the Korean peninsula, including the 
North Korean nuclear matter, discussed in any real depth by the 
U.S., China, and Japan in trilateral talks that exclude South Korea 
as opposed to having those issues discussed through the Six-Party 
Talks, in which North and South Korea participate.  In preparing for 
a worst case scenario, the fate of the Korean peninsula could be 
decided by dialogue that excludes both.  North and South Korea need 
to act wisely now to restore broken dialogue between them and to 
improve relations in order to respond to fundamental changes in the 
security climate in the region. 
 
(This is a translation provided by the newspaper, and it is 
identical to the Korean version.) 
 
 
CHINA, RUSSIA MUST COME ON BOARD OVER N. KOREA ROCKET 
(Chosun Ilbo, March 30, 2009, Page 31) 
 
The chief nuclear negotiators of South Korea, the United States and 
Japan met in Washington, D.C. on Saturday and agreed to refer North 
Korea to the UN Security Council should it go ahead with the launch 
of what it claims is a satellite launch vehicle.  South Korea's 
chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac said he views the launch of any 
long-range projectile by North Korea as a violation of UN Security 
Council resolutions. 
 
North Korea's state-run Rodong Shinmun newspaper warned on Sunday 
that the Six-Party nuclear disarmament talks would be over if the 
launch is referred to the Security Council for possible sanctions. 
North Korea also threatened to take "stronger measures."  Some 
believe that could mean additional nuclear tests.  The first test 
 
SEOUL 00000502  006 OF 008 
 
 
was in 2006.  If the North conducts another (nuclear test) after it 
fires a long-range missile, the situation on the Korean peninsula 
would turn very serious. 
 
To prevent more provocations by North Korea, the international 
community must stand united in urging Pyongyang to stop any moves 
that threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in 
warning that a failure to comply would have consequences.  For such 
efforts to succeed, China and Russia are crucial.  China is said to 
be pressing North Korea to stop the missile launch but says it would 
be difficult for the UN to curb the peaceful exploration of space by 
a sovereign country.  Radio Free Asia on Saturday reported that 
Russia has concluded North Korea would not be violating UN Security 
Council Resolution 1718 if the rocket being prepared for launch 
indeed puts a satellite into orbit. 
 
But North Korea's satellite claim has no substance.  It has yet to 
identify the frequency of the communications satellite, which is 
usually revealed two years before launch, and it lacks a large 
enough communications market to warrant such a device.  When North 
Korea test fired its first long-range missile in 1998, it claimed 
the satellite "Kwangmyongsong-1" was then orbiting the earth.  It is 
simply using the satellite as a fig-leaf for its long-range missile 
technology.  If Taiwan or one of the former Soviet-bloc states 
launched a long-range missile, pretending it was a satellite, China 
and Russia would not sit still. 
 
Rising military tensions in Korea and higher military alert levels 
by the U.S. and Japan triggered by North Korea's missile launch 
would not be favorable to China or Russia.  South Korea, the U.S. 
and Japan should focus their diplomatic efforts through a shared 
understanding that international efforts to stop North Korea's 
missile launch depend on the participation of China and Russia. 
 
(This is a translation provided by the newspaper, and it is 
identical to the Korean version.) 
 
 
TROOP DISPATCH TO AFGHANISTAN AND NATIONAL INTERESTS 
(Dong-a Ilbo, March 30, 2009, Page 27) 
 
The ROKG is considering sending its troops to Afghanistan to support 
the reconstruction and stabilization of Afghanistan.  As shown by 
the global economic crisis and spread of terrorism, no nation can 
survive in isolation.  The status of a nation changes depending on 
the contribution that it makes to the international community and 
the role that it takes on the world stage.  This also affects its 
national interests in the end.  The ROK's national power has grown 
to the extent that the nation now provides help to the world, rather 
than receiving it.  When the ROK plays a role befitting its national 
power, it can be recognized as a responsible member of the 
international community and exercise influence over matters related 
to its national interests. 
 
The ROK-U.S. alliance is also an important factor to be considered. 
In a relationship between countries, there is no such thing as 
one-sided generosity.  We desperately need cooperation with the U.S. 
in the North Korean nuclear and missile issues.  We also have the 
task of elevating the ROK-U.S. alliance from a military relationship 
to a twenty-first century strategic alliance.  Cooperation of the 
Obama Administration is also needed for the ratification of the 
ROK-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). 
 
Troop dispatch to Afghanistan may, of course, involve some dangers. 
In the past, one ROK soldier was killed in a terrorist attack, and 
23 ROK Christian aid workers were abducted by the Taliban and two of 
them were murdered.  Therefore, it is true that the ROK people are 
very concerned (about the troop deployment).  However, from a 
long-term perspective, we should do what we have to do for the sake 
of our national interests.  In this globalization era, we need the 
wisdom of looking at the world from a broader angle. 
 
 
FEATURES 
 
SEOUL 00000502  007 OF 008 
 
 
-------- 
 
THE U.S. REVIEWS ENHANCED ANIMAL FEED RULE 
(KBS, March 28, 2009) 
 
Anchor: The U.S. has started to review the enhanced animal feed ban 
rule, which we demanded as a condition for U.S. beef imports from 
cattle over 30-months old.  Since we are not currently importing 
beef from cattle older than 30 months, the situation will not change 
immediately, but if the rule is scrapped, it will likely bring 
changes.  Washington Correspondent Lee Hyun-joo has details. 
 
Reporter: The ROK Embassy in Washington said that the U.S. has 
included the "enhanced feed ban," which was initially scheduled to 
be implemented next month, among rules to be reviewed.   Under this 
regulation, brains and spinal cords from BSE-infected cattle or 
cattle over 30 months of age are banned from all animal feed.  Of 
course, this decision came as part of work to reexamine rules pushed 
by the previous Bush Administration. 
 
The problem is that this rule is a precondition for the ROK to 
accept U.S. beef imports from cattle over 30-months old.  Of course, 
since we are currently delaying the import of U.S. beef from cattle 
older than 30 months through additional talks with the U.S., it will 
not change the situation immediately.  However, if the U.S. finally 
decides to abolish (the enhanced feed ban), the story will be 
different because it will basically remove the grounds on which the 
ROK agreed to import U.S. beef from cattle over 30-months old.  In 
this case, considering that the initial condition for the beef 
import agreement between the ROK and the U.S. was the promulgation 
of the enhanced feed ban, controversy could arise over legal 
interpretations of whether the U.S. actually promulgated the ban. 
More fundamentally, it could also spark controversy in the ROK over 
the safety of U.S. beef.  However, the ROKG is watching further 
developments, saying that it is too early to predict that the ban 
will be scrapped. 
 
Lee Hyun-joo from Washington 
 
 
VOA SECURES POWERFUL BASE 
(Korea Herald, March 30, 2009, Page 3) 
 
U.S. radio station allowed to broadcast into N.K. from Seoul 
 
Voice of America has boosted its radio broadcasts into North Korea 
this year by transmitting from Seoul with support from a South 
Korean president who has taken a hard-line stance against the 
reclusive communist regime. 
President Lee Myung-bak's administration is allowing the U.S. 
government-funded broadcaster to use transmission equipment in South 
Korea to send its dispatches into the North for the first time since 
the 1970s. 
That makes the signal much clearer than VOA's long-running shortwave 
broadcasts from far-flung stations in the Philippines, Thailand and 
the South Pacific island of Saipan. Moreover, it's an AM signal, so 
listening in doesn't require a shortwave radio. 
"Radio can play a big role in changing people," said Kim Dae-sung, 
who fled the North in 2000 and is now a reporter at Free North Korea 
Radio, a shortwave radio broadcaster in Seoul. "Even if it's simply 
news, it's something that North Koreans have never heard of." 
Still, the move could be seen as yet more provocative policymaking 
by a government already at loggerheads with the North over Lee's 
tough policy on Pyongyang, and comes at a time of heightened 
regional tensions over North Korea's plans to launch a rocket early 
next month. Nuclear envoys from South Korea and Japan flew to 
Washington for talks Friday with top U.S. diplomats about North 
Korea. 
"North Korea will see this as meaning that the South's government is 
trying to overthrow the regime by uniting strength with U.S. 
hard-liners," said Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the private Sejong 
Institute think tank outside Seoul. 
Information control buttresses North Korea's autocratic rule. Radios 
in the country come with prefixed channels that receive only 
 
SEOUL 00000502  008 OF 008 
 
 
government signals brimming with propaganda and praise for leader 
Kim Jong Il. 
But some listen to outside broadcasts using radios smuggled in from 
China or by removing the frequency jammers on their state-issued 
radios, despite the risk of harsh punishment, including 
incarceration in North Korea's notoriously grim political prison 
camps. 
VOA, founded in 1942 with a broadcast in German, now has programs in 
45 languages. During the Cold War, it targeted listeners in 
totalitarian states. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it has 
focused on countries where radio and TV news is 
government-controlled and outside news sources are banned. 
Since Jan. 1, VOA has been using the antenna facilities of the Far 
East Broadcasting Company-Korea, a Christian evangelical radio 
station, for half of its three-hour nighttime broadcast into the 
North. The antenna is only 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the 
border. 
"I think it's getting deeper into the North in better quality," said 
Park Se-kyung, head of the Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute, 
an association of radio experts monitoring broadcasts in the 
region. 
The broadcast is mainly news, with a focus on North Korea, such as 
its ongoing nuclear standoff with the United States and other 
nations. 
South Korea prohibited VOA from broadcasting from its soil for 
carrying a 1973 report on the kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung, then a 
leading South Korean dissident. The authoritarian Seoul government 
at the time is widely believed to have been behind the abduction. 
Upon becoming president of democratic South Korea in 1998, Kim 
ushered in a "sunshine policy" toward the North that called for 
cooperation and engagement. The warming of relations won him the 
Nobel Peace Prize. 
But President Lee has taken a far tougher line on North Korea since 
taking office in February 2008, a stance that has opened the way for 
VOA to resume transmissions from the South. 
Some radio experts say VOA's arrangement with the Christian station 
violates a South Korean ban on broadcasters relaying foreign 
signals. 
But Kim Jung-tae, an official with the Korea Communications 
Commission, justifies his agency's decision to allow the VOA 
broadcast on the grounds that local networks are allowed to fill up 
to 20 percent of their airtime with foreign programming. 
Joan Mower, VOA's public relations director in Washington, D.C., 
described the project as "a routine arrangement, similar to 
thousands of other arrangements VOA has worldwide." 
Broadcasting via South Korea helps VOA "expand its reach to 
audiences inside North Korea," she said by e-mail. 
Reporters Without Borders announced this week that the France-based 
media watchdog group and the European Union will support three 
Seoul-based radio stations targeting North Korea, including Free 
North Korea Radio, with about 400 million won ($290,000). 
"These radios are one of the few hopes to create a real evolution in 
the country. Without that, the North Koreans don't know what is 
going on in the world and they don't know even what is going on in 
their own country," said Vincent Brossel of Reporters Without 
Borders. 
North Korea condemns such broadcasts as "U.S. psychological warfare" 
and often jams the signals. So far, it has not interfered with VOA's 
new AM broadcast, said radio expert Park. Doing so requires more 
equipment than blocking shortwave signals, and the fact that North 
Korea isn't doing so may indicate the North is struggling 
economically, he said. 
Park said he supports the broadcasts. 
"North Korean people have the right to information," he said. 
"Providing correct information to people in a closed nation is what 
democratic nations should do." 
(Associated Press writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.) 
 
 
STEPHENS