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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 SEOUL 001103 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US
SUBJECT: SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; July 13, 2009 
 
TOP HEADLINES 
------------- 
 
 
Chosun Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun, All TVs 
ROK, EU Practically Reach Free Trade Deal 
 
JoongAng Ilbo 
Veteran ROK Female Climber Found Dead 
After Fall in the Himalaya 
 
Dong-a Ilbo 
Court Rules against Labor Union Leaders of Higher Organizations 
Arbitrarily Entering Individual Workplaces 
 
Hankook Ilbo, Segye Ilbo 
Opposition Democratic Party Ends National Assembly Boycott 
 
Hankyoreh Shinmun 
Evidence that Dong-a Ilbo Engaged in Unfair Stock Trading Using 
Inside Information 
 
 
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 
--------------------- 
 
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt 
Campbell will visit the ROK from July 18-20. Attention is being 
focused on whether his visit will be conducive to holding the 
envisioned five-way talks between the five members - excluding North 
Korea - of the Six-Party Talks. (Dong-a) 
 
According to an intelligence source, North Korea has stolen personal 
information of at least 1.65 million ROK citizens electronically 
since 2004. (JoongAng, Hankyoreh, Segye, Seoul) 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL NEWS 
------------------ 
 
In a recent report to the National Assembly, the (ROK) National 
Intelligence Service (NIS) raised the possibility that a power 
struggle may erupt following the death of North Korean leader Kim 
Jong-il between his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, and Jang 
Song-taek, the leader's brother-in-law and the purported number two 
man in the North. (Chosun) 
 
 
MEDIA ANALYSIS 
--------------- 
 
-President Obama in Ghana 
------------------------- 
Most ROK media gave attention to President Barack Obama's first 
official trip to the African continent, focusing their coverage on 
President Obama's mention of the ROK as a role model for Africa. 
President Obama was widely quoted as saying in a July 11 speech to 
the Ghanaian parliament: "Countries like Kenya had a per capita 
economy larger than South Korea's when I was born.  They have badly 
been outpaced.  Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the 
African continent." 
 
-N. Korea 
--------- 
Moderate Seoul Shinmun noted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 
July 10 town hall meeting at the State Department, in which she 
urged North Korea to grant amnesty to the two U.S. journalists held 
in the North.  She was quoted: "The two journalists and their 
families have expressed great remorse for this incident.  And I 
think everyone is very sorry that it happened.  What we hope for now 
is that these two young women would be granted amnesty through the 
 
SEOUL 00001103  002 OF 007 
 
 
North Korean system and be allowed to return home to their families 
as soon as possible." 
 
Conservative Chosun Ilbo carried an inside-page report on the (ROK) 
National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s recent report to the National 
Assembly, in which the NIS raised the possibility that a power 
struggle may erupt following the death of North Korean leader Kim 
Jong-il between his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, and Jang 
Song-taek, the leader's brother-in law and the purported number two 
man in the North.  Chosun went on to cite the NIS as predicting that 
Kim Jong-un officially will be declared his father's successor in 
2012, the year North Korea has designated as the year it will build 
a "powerful and prosperous nation," as their latest slogan reads. 
 
 
FEATURES 
-------- 
 
US AMBASSADOR SAYS U.S. TO TAKE 'MULTI-TRACK' APPROACH ON DPRK 
(Yonhap News English Edition, July 12, 2009) 
 
By Reporter Lee Chi-dong 
 
The United States will continue to take a "multi-track" approach in 
dealing with North Korea, enforcing sanctions but also seeking 
dialogue and showing flexibility, Washington's top envoy here said. 
 
Ambassador Kathleen Stephens reaffirmed that the Barack Obama 
Administration holds fast to the goal of denuclearizing North Korea 
through the Six-Party Talks, also joined by South Korea, China, 
Russia, and Japan. 
 
"The United States will not... accept the notion of North Korea 
possessing nuclear weapons capability," Stephens said in an 
interview Friday with Yonhap News Agency at her office in Seoul. 
 
The Ambassador also indicated that the U.S. would be willing to 
negotiate more room for South Korea's civilian nuclear program 
through future consultations. 
 
Stephens stressed that on North Korea, the U.S. will "continue to 
keep the door open for a return to diplomacy, a return to 
dialogue." 
 
The end goal is getting results, Stephens said on showing 
flexibility toward Pyongyang.  "We don't have a very rigid sense 
that something must be done exactly one way or the other." 
 
"But what we do insist on is that, one, dialogue and diplomacy is 
the best way to resolve this, and two, it does have to be on the 
principle that at the end of the day, we want to see a denuclearized 
Korean Peninsula." 
 
Pyongyang has been upping the ante for months since Obama took 
office early this year.  It fired a long-range rocket in April that 
was viewed by South Korea, the U.S. and their allies as a disguised 
missile test.  The following month, it conducted its second nuclear 
test and coupled its belligerent behavior with threats to further 
bolster its atomic arsenal and abandon the Six-Party Talks. 
 
Stephens said the U.S. was still analyzing the North's May 25 
nuclear test, which had "a force of several kilotons." 
 
The U.S. will take steps to implement U.N. Security Council 
Resolution 1874, (adopted to punish the North for the atomic test) 
and will also weigh further countermeasures at the national level, 
she said. 
 
The Ambassador said the U.S. is trying to share information with 
other nations on North Korea's illicit trade and financial 
transactions, adding a recent trip to China and Malaysia by Philip 
Goldberg, U.S. coordinator for the implementation of the resolution, 
was a part of those efforts. 
 
 
SEOUL 00001103  003 OF 007 
 
 
Stephens dismissed growing doubts about the efficacy of the 
Six-Party Talks, citing progress both in substance and in advancing 
the negotiating process. 
 
"I think over the last several years, the efforts of the parties to 
work together on a common problem central to peace and stability in 
the region has been a process that has developed, and we need to 
continue to build on that development," she said.  "I think that we 
have developed a habit of cooperation that we need to continue to 
strengthen." 
 
The Sept. 19, 2005 agreement at the Six-Party Talks, in which the 
North pledged to give up all its nuclear weapons and programs in 
return for a package of political and economic incentives, is the 
"best description" of the desired results, said Stephens. 
 
"We have not given up on that.  We may need to adjust both our 
process and our negotiating approach but I think we still have the 
right parties involved and I think we still have the right goals in 
mind," she said. 
 
Stephens, who first established personal ties with South Korea 
decades ago as a Peace Corp volunteer, came back as a diplomat last 
year as Seoul and Washington began to sort through a series of 
issues to update their alliance, which stretches back to the 1950-53 
Korean War. 
 
One of the upcoming tasks will be negotiating the expansion of South 
Korea's civilian nuclear program. 
 
Under a 1974 accord with the U.S., South Korea is banned from 
enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel.  The two sides plan 
to begin talks to revise the agreement later this year, as it is set 
to expire in 2014. 
 
Stephens said the U.S. "clearly understands" that nuclear energy is 
very important to South Korea, which depends heavily on oil imports 
for its energy needs. 
 
The two countries have "a longstanding and continuing tradition" of 
consulting on peaceful civilian nuclear energy, she said, pointing 
out that it was mentioned in a joint statement issued after the 
South Korea-U.S. summit in Washington last month. 
 
"The science changes on these things as well and that's why it's 
kind of a continual process of making sure that we are 
well-coordinated, and that we have a clear understanding of the way 
to go forward," she said. 
 
"We need to have even deeper consultations and cooperation." 
 
Stephens also said the allies should focus on preparing for the 
transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) over South Korean 
troops back to Seoul in 2012 as scheduled, rather than talking about 
setting a new deadline. 
 
OPCON was handed over to the U.S. immediately after the outbreak of 
the Korean War.  Some conservatives in South Korea, concerned that 
the transfer will send the wrong signal to North Korea, want it 
delayed. 
 
The Ambassador recommended they approach the issue differently. 
 
The right question is whether the transfer in 2012 will be the right 
step at the right time to strengthen the alliance," not 'is this 
going to do no harm?'," Stephens said. 
 
"I think the progress we've made to date gives us great confidence 
that we can indeed achieve this shared goal of operational control 
transfer because it is the right thing for today's world," she 
said. 
 
The Ambassador urged North Korea to grant amnesty to the two 
American journalists detained there, and to treat this as a 
 
SEOUL 00001103  004 OF 007 
 
 
"humanitarian case." 
 
The two female reporters from Current TV, a San Francisco-based Web 
media outlet, were arrested in March near the North Korean border 
with China while doing a story on North Korean defectors.  The North 
sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor last month for entering the 
country illegally and for unspecified "hostile acts." 
 
One of the reporters, Laura Ling, telephoned her sister in 
California on Thursday and said they did commit a crime and that a 
government pardon is their only hope for freedom. 
 
"They have gone through the court system and we would like to see an 
amnesty and their immediate release.  I hope they (the North Korean 
government) will listen to the appeals of our government that they 
treat this as a humanitarian case," Stephens said. 
 
She would not go into details about the U.S. efforts to win their 
release, amid reports that Washington may send a high-level envoy to 
Pyongyang. 
 
 
US AMBASSADOR STEPHENS SAYS U.S. KEEPING 'DOOR OPEN' TO DIALOGUE 
WITH DPRK 
(Yonhap News, July 12, 2009) 
 
The following are excerpts from a Yonhap News Agency interview with 
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens. 
 
Q: How does the U.S. assess N. Korea's recent nuke test, and is 
there a possibility that the U.S. will accept the North's possession 
of nuclear bombs? 
 
A: Well, first in regard to the May 25th test, our technical experts 
are still analyzing the situation.  But our analysis is that on May 
25th, there was a test near Punggye-ri that had a force of several 
kilotons, but we'll continue to analyze it.  In terms of your second 
question, I mean, the answer is very simple.  No.  The United States 
will not ... accept the notion of North Korea possessing nuclear 
weapons capability.  And that, as you know, as reaffirmed recently 
by the U.N. and the Security Council is the ... unanimous position 
of the international community as expressed by the Security Council. 
 We believe that the DPRK (North Korea) should return to the NPT 
(non-proliferation treaty) and should abandon its nuclear weapons 
program. 
 
Q: Ambassador Philip Goldberg made a recent trip to China and 
Malaysia.  Under Secretary of Treasury Levey also visited Beijing 
and Hong Kong.  Does the U.S. have new evidence of North Korea's 
alleged counterfeiting or other illegal activities? 
 
A: I might add to what you've mentioned that the United States has 
asked Ambassador Philip Goldberg to lead the effort on the U.S. side 
to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874.  And Ambassador 
Goldberg recently led a delegation to Beijing and also to Kuala 
Lumpur and had some good discussions there.  This is part of our 
approach, which we've been very transparent about, in the aftermath 
of North Korea's provocative acts - to consult very closely with our 
partners and neighbors in the region, to take steps to implement the 
Security Council resolution, as well as to look at further national 
steps that we might take.  And at the same time, we want to continue 
to keep the door open for a return to diplomacy, a return to 
dialogue.  So I think you will see this kind of multi-track activity 
continuing in a very steady way in the coming days and weeks. 
 
Q: North Korea has been refusing to rejoin the six-way talks. Many 
doubt the efficacy of the talks.  Do you think that the talks are 
still meaningful? 
 
A: I do. And I would say it in two contexts.  One, in the context of 
process.  I think over the last several years, the efforts of the 
parties to work together on a common problem central to peace and 
stability in the region has been a process that has developed, and 
we need to continue to build on that development.  I think that we 
 
SEOUL 00001103  005 OF 007 
 
 
have developed a habit of cooperation that we need to continue to 
strengthen.  And the other area is in the area of actual substance. 
The agreement that was reached in September 2005 in the joint 
statement of principles remains in my mind - and I think in the mind 
of my government - the best description of what we would like to see 
as the end result, and we have not given up on that.  Now we have 
suffered setbacks, there is no question about that.  And we may need 
to adjust both our process and our negotiating approach.  But I 
think we still have the right parties involved, and I think we still 
have the right goals in mind. 
 
Q: Can the U.S. show some flexibility in dealing with North Korea? 
For example, having bilateral talks within the six-way framework? 
 
A: Yes, and I think if you look at what Ambassador Stephen Bosworth 
has said, what Secretary Clinton has said and others, I think 
there's an understanding that we want to get results.  We don't have 
a very rigid sense that something must be done exactly one way or 
the other.  But what we do insist on is that one, dialogue and 
diplomacy is the best way to resolve this, and two, it does have to 
be on the principle that at the end of the day, we want to see a 
denuclearized Korean Peninsula. 
 
Q: What if North Korea wants to hold bilateral talks with the U.S. 
outside of the six-way format? 
 
A: Well, what we'd like to see North Korea do is to cease and 
desist, stop the provocative actions, and to demonstrate a readiness 
to return to the implementation of the September 2005 Joint 
Statement of Principles.  We believe that the other parties in the 
Six-Party Talks have very important interests in this process as 
well, and I can't imagine a process that does not include the very 
important interests of the Republic of Korea as well as other 
countries. 
 
Q: What do you think of a proposal on five-party consultations 
without the participation of North Korea? 
 
A: Well, as I said a moment earlier, one of the tracks that we are 
working on now is continuing consultations with others in the 
region, notably those within the Six-Party framework.  So we will 
continue to consult like that.  We haven't really taken a firm 
position on exactly how we should meet.  We just continue, as you 
have seen, to have meetings with our allies and our partners 
throughout the region as people travel around. 
 
Q: Do you have information on the whereabouts of the two U.S. 
journalists detained in North Korea? 
 
A: We have been working very closely with the Swedish Ambassador in 
Pyongyang.  As you know, Sweden is the protecting power for the 
United States because we do not have a diplomatic mission in 
Pyongyang.  And he has been working very, very hard and very 
steadily to not only obtain news about these two journalists, but 
also to see them.  And I believe he's seen them four times.  The 
last time was on June 23, I believe, which was about three weeks 
ago.  He is also in constant or trying to be in constant contact 
with the North Korean authorities, but he has seen them four times. 
And he is asking to see them again.  But basically the position of 
my government is to continue to ask the North Korean authorities to 
release them with an amnesty.  They have gone through the court 
system, and we would like to see an amnesty and their immediate 
release. 
 
Q: Do you expect North Korea to change its position and release the 
reporters?  Does the U.S. have a plan to send a high-level envoy to 
negotiate their release? 
 
A: I am not aware of any statement they've made that I've seen in 
the press, but I hope they will listen to the appeals of our 
government that they treat this as a humanitarian case.  These are 
two women with families who very much want to see them come home and 
we hope the North Korean authorities will see their way towards an 
amnesty for them.  At this moment all I can really say is that for 
 
SEOUL 00001103  006 OF 007 
 
 
us, the protection of U.S. citizens abroad remains a very high 
priority, and we do want to make every effort we can, but we hope 
that the North Koreans will bring amnesty to these two individuals. 
 
Q: What do you think about South Korea's push for expanding its 
civilian nuclear program? 
 
A: Well, to my knowledge, we have not received an official request 
from the Republic of Korea on this issue.  However, we certainly 
have a longstanding and continuing tradition of very close 
cooperation and consultation on issues related to peaceful civilian 
nuclear energy.  And in fact, it's something that's mentioned in the 
joint vision statement that our two presidents released just a 
couple, a few weeks ago.  But we have not been approached by the 
Korean government in this regard. 
 
We do have kind of a continual discussion about these things.  And 
you know, the science changes on these things as well, and that's 
why it's kind of a continual process of making sure that we're 
well-coordinated, that we have a clear understanding - as the 
science changes - of the way to go forward. 
 
Q: South Korea apparently wants to have the right to enrich uranium, 
reprocess spent fuel like Japan.  What's your opinion? 
 
A: I really think that it's a technical discussion that needs to be 
continued on the basis of our close alliance, and on the basis of 
our clear understanding that nuclear energy, the civilian nuclear 
energy program, is very important to the Republic of Korea, so we 
need to have even deeper consultations and cooperation. 
 
Q: Some conservatives in South Korea call for a delay in the 
transfer of OPCON, which is slated for 2012.  What's your view? 
 
A: Well, you know because I've followed Korea for so many years, I 
know that actually this discussion about OPCON and who should have 
operational control of troops in peacetime and wartime has been 
around in our discussions for several decades.  And as you may 
recall, the operational control of ROK forces in peacetime was 
transferred to the ROK in 1994.  I think that it is a very natural 
and appropriate step in the transformation of our joint alliance. 
Now, over the last few years as this was discussed, as I prepared to 
come to Korea, I got the sense that, speaking frankly, that 
underneath there was a sense that maybe the decision on OPCON 
transfer went to the issue of U.S. commitment in Korea.  I think 
that question has pretty much disappeared because in fact, as I 
think it's been demonstrated, the U.S. commitment to the Republic of 
Korea is as strong or is stronger than ever. 
 
So I think the question now has become, "Is this step in 2012 going 
to be the right step at the right time to strengthen our alliance 
and to strengthen our defensive posture?"  Because I think the 
standard should be no less.  The standard should be, "Are we going 
to be stronger as an alliance in our defensive capabilities, in our 
ability to work together through this?" not, "is this going to do no 
harm?"  We should actually say, "Is it going to strengthen us?"  And 
that is the question that our militaries are looking at every time 
they take another step towards the planning and implementation of 
OPCON transfer.  So far I think it's going very well.  I think the 
progress we've made to date gives us great confidence that we can 
indeed achieve this shared goal of operational control transfer 
because it is the right thing for today's world, for today's 
capabilities, and do it in a way that actually makes us more capable 
and stronger, not less.  I think what we need to concentrate on is 
continuing on the path that we're on because I think that it's the 
right one towards the operational control transfer in 2012. 
 
Q: Does the U.S. have a plan to ask South Korea to dispatch troops 
to Afghanistan? 
 
A: Well first of all, I mean, the United States does very much 
appreciate the kinds of contributions that Korea has made and 
continues to make around the world in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 
variety of U.N. peacekeeping missions.  Korea itself obviously has 
 
SEOUL 00001103  007 OF 007 
 
 
very strong interests in the future stability and prosperity of not 
only Afghanistan, but also Pakistan and the broader central Asian 
region.  And when our special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, 
Mr. Richard Holbrooke, was here in April, he had some very good 
discussions with various people in the Korean government about those 
growing interests and the growing role that Korea is playing in a 
variety of countries in Central Asia.  And he was very clear that he 
very much hopes that we can continue to look to the Republic of 
Korea -- both as an ally and because of its own growing global 
interests -- to be helpful to the efforts for greater stability and 
prosperity in that region.  But he was also very clear ... this is 
really up to the Korean government, the Korean people, as to what 
they want that to be. And that's very much the message that we've 
reinforced time and again.  We look forward to continuing to work 
with Korea on our joint goals in the region, but we were not then 
and we are not now going to say that it has to take one form or 
another.  There are a lot of ways Korea has been and can continue to 
be very helpful. 
 
Q: Do you think South Korea and the U.S. need to hold additional 
talks on their free trade agreement? 
 
A: What we have said is that we want to find a way forward towards 
ratification.  This is a very ambitious agreement that was reached 
two years ago, or more than two years ago now I guess, by previous 
administrations of both our countries, and since then we've had not 
only new administrations in both countries, but a worldwide economic 
downturn and an historic crisis in the American auto industry.  So 
we have different factors out there now; what has not changed is the 
sense, in both the United States and Korea, that this agreement is 
extremely important both on economic and strategic grounds. 
 
Q: Nine months have passed since you became the U.S. ambassador to 
South Korea. How is your work and life here? 
 
A: Well, I'm delighted to be in Korea.  And I think my expectations, 
my very high expectations about returning to Korea for the third 
time to live and to work have been exceeded by my nine months here. 
Of course it's a challenge and a pleasure to come back to a country 
that I first came to so many years ago, and to every day think about 
and reflect on the past and present and the future.  So personally, 
it's very rewarding, but also in a professional sense, when I first 
came here, I said I felt that the moment was right to try to take 
the relationship to a new level.  And now, nine months later, I feel 
even more strongly that now is the right time to do that, so it 
feels like a particular responsibility, but also a privilege, to be 
here right now.  But Korean life is great. 
 
(Editor's Note: The same story was also carried by the July 13 
editions of Kyunghyang Shinmun, Maeil Business Newspaper, and 
Kookmin Ilbo under the respective headline, "Ambassador Stephens: 
'We Need to Have Consultations on the ROK's Civilian Nuclear 
Program,'" "Ambassador Stephens: 'We Will Have Consultations on the 
ROK's Civilian Nuclear Program,'" and "Ambassador Stephens: 
'Peaceful Nuclear Energy Use Is Important to the ROK.'") 
 
 
STEPHENS