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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SEOUL 000051 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US
SUBJECT: SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; JANUARY 13, 2010 
 
TOP HEADLINES 
------------- 
 
 
Chosun Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo 
Feud Deepens in Ruling Camp over Sejong City 
Development Plan 
 
JoongAng Ilbo 
Survey: 82 Percent of ROK Citizens Want Sejong City Issue 
to be Resolved through Referendum or National Survey 
 
Dong-a Ilbo 
Apple Admits Using ROK's Patent Technology 
without Permission 
 
Hankyoreh Shinmun 
ROKG Seeks to Offer Land at Bargain Prices for Firms that Invest in 
Other Innovative and Industrial Cities, Drawing Criticism for Giving 
Two Much Favor to Companies and Encouraging Reckless Development 
 
Segye Ilbo 
President Lee: "It Is Regrettable that Sejong City Issue 
is Becoming Political Issue" 
 
Seoul Shinmun, All TVs 
ROK's Long-Standing Preference for Sons over Daughters Receding; 
Survey Finds More Parents Want Baby Girls 
 
 
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 
---------------------- 
 
According to the Korea International Trade Association, the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection 
Service (APHIS) has decided to indefinitely postpone recognizing the 
ROK as a country free of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease. The ROK 
reported its first outbreak of FMD in eight years on Jan. 7. 
(Dong-a) 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL NEWS 
------------------ 
 
Responding to North Korea's recent proposal for talks on a peace 
treaty, the White House and the State Department both said on Jan. 
11 that the North should first return to the Six-Party Talks and 
take steps toward denuclearization. (All) 
 
 
MEDIA ANALYSIS 
--------------- 
 
-N. Korea 
--------- 
Media reaction continues on North Korea's recent proposal for talks 
on a peace treaty.  All ROK media carried reports from Washington 
saying that the U.S. immediately rejected North Korea's proposal. 
 
White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs was quoted as saying: "If they're 
willing to live up to those (denuclearization) obligations, then we 
will make progress in those (peace treaty) talks."  Philip Crowley, 
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, was also widely 
quoted: "The first - the key here is that North Korea has to come 
back to ... the Six-Party process, start working on its obligations 
under the (September 19) joint communiqu - joint statement, and 
then we are perfectly willing to have other kinds of discussions." 
 
Most media also noted a report by Japan's Kyodo News Agency that 
North Korea's Ambassador to China Choe Jin-su said on Jan. 12 that 
Pyongyang will hold talks with the U.S. and China for replacing the 
Korean War armistice agreement with a peace treaty, but showed 
reservations about holding such talks with the ROK. 
 
SEOUL 00000051  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
Right-of-center JoongAng Ilbo editorialized: "(The North's proposal 
for peace treaty talks to advance denuclearization) is disappointing 
because it amounts to putting the cart before the horse. ...  This 
(development) has undermined the possibility of progress in getting 
the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and has also dimmed the 
prospects for establishing a permanent peace on the Korean 
Peninsula." 
 
Conservative Dong-a Ilbo wrote in its headline: "Six-Party Talks 
Made More Complicated; N. Korea's Peace Treaty Overture Emerges as 
New Bone of Contention, Besides Its Human Rights and Uranium 
Enrichment Issues" 
 
Moderate Hankook Ilbo observed in an editorial: "The problem is that 
North Korea insists on 'denuclearization after signing a peace 
treaty,' rather than resumption of the Six-Party Talks. ... 
The North would be reckless if it tries to blur the issue of 
denuclearization by raising another contentious issue.  Pyongyang 
should first return to the Six-Party Talks and then discuss a peace 
treaty or lifting sanctions against the North. " 
 
 
OPINIONS/EDITORIALS 
-------------------- 
 
¶N. KOREA'S RETURN TO SIX-PARTY TALKS MUST PRECEDE PEACE TREATY TALKS 
 
(JoongAng Ilbo, January 13, Page 30) 
 
The North Korean Foreign Ministry's statement that a peace treaty 
should be signed to speed up the denuclearization (of the Korean 
Peninsula) is disappointing because it amounts to putting the cart 
before the horse.  So are North Korean claims that it will resume 
the Six-Party Talks if the UN lifts sanctions.  The USG dismissed 
this proposal in less than a day.  The U.S. stressed that if North 
Korea returns to the Six-Party Talks and makes progress on 
denuclearization, it can discuss overall issues including signing of 
a peace treaty.  The ROKG has the same position.  During the month 
following U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen 
Bosworth's visit to Pyongyang, the ROK and the U.S. have been 
engaging in a tug-of-war with North Korea. 
 
North Korea has demanded a peace treaty with the U.S. for years. 
This time, the North further complicated this issue by formally 
linking a peace treaty with denuclearization.  This North Korean 
approach is not genuine.  The North is just trying to capitalize on 
the ROK and U.S. position that a peace treaty could be signed if 
North Korea makes progress on denuclearization under the September 
19 Joint Statement.  This clearly shows that the North was merely 
making a conditional offer when it expressed willingness to Chinese 
Premier Wen Jiabao to rejoin the Six-Party Talks.  North Korea once 
again confirmed that it has an ulterior motive despite its assertion 
that it aims to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. 
 
This (development) has undermined the possibility of progress in 
getting the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and has also 
dimmed the prospects for establishing a permanent peace on the 
Korean Peninsula.  However, we should not stop (the effort to) 
persuade the North from abandoning its nuclear weapons program.  We 
should continue to take a carrot-and-stick approach until we can 
persuade the North (that it should denuclearize.)  One hopeful sign 
is that time is not on the North's side.  The North is facing a 
succession issue and its currency reform sparked anger among 
residents.  In this situation, the North is unlikely to keep 
pursuing a "hedgehog strategy". 
 
North Korea will become increasingly restless because it will find 
it difficult to change foreign policy drastically in order to 
maintain its regime, and its internal crisis is escalating.  This 
may prompt North Korea to ratchet up tensions on the Korean 
Peninsula.  This is why the ROK should take thorough steps to deter 
North Korean provocations.  We should bolster our military 
deterrence while at the same time taking a carrot-and-stick policy 
 
SEOUL 00000051  003 OF 004 
 
 
appropriately. 
 
(Ed. Note:  A hedgehog strategy means that a country will be 
belligerent and "show its spikes" so that other nations will be 
unlikely to invade them.) 
 
 
¶N. KOREA NEEDS TO COME BACK TO SIX-PARTY TALKS BEFORE DISCUSSING 
PEACE TREATY 
(Hankook Ilbo, January 13, 2010, Page 39) 
 
North Korea proposed peace treaty talks with the signatories to the 
Korean War ceasefire in its Foreign Ministry's statement on Monday. 
The statement stressed that this year is the right time to hold 
peace talks since it marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. 
However, more noteworthy is the fact that Pyongyang said that the 
talks on a peace treaty "could take place within the framework of 
the Six-Party Talks."  This seems intended to create a justification 
for rejoining the Six-Party Talks, which the North declared dead 
last July. 
 
North Korea will not, of course, willingly return to the Six-Party 
Talks.  The Foreign Ministry's statement set the lifting of the UN 
sanctions as a precondition.  The North demands that justification 
be provided for it to return to the bargaining table which it walked 
away from on its own.  In order for the talks to resume, it seems 
inevitable that a compromise must be made to guarantee that there 
will be discussions on a peace treaty and that sanctions must be 
removed to some extent. 
 
While reaffirming that the North should first rejoin the Six-Party 
Talks, the U.S. also took an accommodating attitude.  Secretary 
Clinton indirectly said that if the North returns to the Six-Party 
Talks, an opportunity to consider easing the sanctions will be open. 
 At the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks in 2005, there was 
already an agreement that a peace treaty, along with 
denuclearization, should be discussed at separate talks.  When U.S. 
Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth 
visited Pyongyang last December, he reportedly agreed with the North 
on the four-party talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S. and China 
to discuss a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. 
 
The problem is that North Korea insists on "denuclearization after 
signing a peace treaty," rather than the resumption of the Six-Party 
Talks.  It is most desirable that denuclearization should come 
before the signing of a peace treaty, which leads to a peace regime, 
but it is also difficult to proceed with both of them at the same 
time.  Judging from North Korea's past behavior, there will be an 
obstacle at every step of the way. 
 
In the Foreign Ministry's statement, the North did not specify the 
countries that are signatories to the ceasefire.  Pyongyang may have 
intentionally left it out to be controversial.  However, it is 
needless to say that the ROK should be a direct party to a peace 
treaty and a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.  The North would 
be reckless if it tries to blur the issue of denuclearization by 
raising another contentious issue.  Pyongyang should first return to 
the Six-Party Talks and then discuss a peace treaty or lifting 
sanctions against the North. 
 
 
FEATURES 
-------- 
 
ROK'S COWARDLY SILENCE ABOUT NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE 
(Chosun Ilbo, January 13, 2010, Front Page) 
 
By Reporter Chung Woo-sang 
 
The world's attention, the ROK's disregard 
 
Recently, foreign officials dealing with the matter of North Korean 
human rights are engaging in a flurry of activities in Seoul.  U.S. 
Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King met 
 
SEOUL 00000051  004 OF 004 
 
 
with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Unification Minister Hyun 
In-taek on January 11 and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Chairman 
Chung Mong-joon, opposition Democratic Party leader Chung Se-kyun, 
and former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye on January 12.  He also 
reportedly said, "Improved relations within the United States and 
North Korea will have to involve greater respect for human rights by 
North Korea."  UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human 
Rights in the DPRK Vitit Muntarbhorn, who is also visiting the ROK 
to make a report on the North Korean human rights issue, called on 
Hanawon, the government resettlement center for North Korean 
defectors. 
 
While the international community is making active efforts to 
improve human rights conditions in North Korea, the ROK government 
and lawmakers are silent or even indifferent to the issue.  In 
reality, it is true that once the word "North Korean" is added to 
"human rights" in the ROK, it is viewed from a political 
perspective.  The behavior of Robert Park, a Korean-American 
missionary who crossed the Tumen River into North Korea from China, 
is considered "aberrant" in the ROK.  This contrasts sharply with 
the close attention paid by ruling parties and the so-called "human 
rights groups" when Amnesty International officials visited Seoul to 
investigate the police response to candlelight rallies. 
 
Throughout a decade of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun 
Administrations, the North Korean human rights issue was considered 
a hurdle to national reconciliation even though it gained great 
attention from the international community.  A good example is the 
North Korean Human Rights Act which is pending in the National 
Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee.  The 
bill, which calls on the ROKG to examine the condition of the 
North's human rights, was proposed in the 17th National Assembly but 
automatically dropped.  In the 18th Assembly, the Democratic Party 
defined the Act as one of President Lee Myung-bak's "evil laws," 
stalling discussions on this issue. 
 
Freedom House, an international human rights organization, released 
a human rights report on 194 countries on January 12.  In the 
report, North Korea ranks among nine nations with the worst records 
along with Myanmar and Sudan.  The U.S. and Japanese lawmakers have 
passed the North Korean Human Rights Act and various international 
organizations such as the UN are making efforts to improve North 
Korea's human rights conditions.  Regardless of liberal or 
conservative, international society is taking an interest in the 
North Korean human rights issue.  Therefore, it is somewhat absurd 
that the North Korean Human Rights Act is regarded as an evil law in 
the ROK. 
 
 
STEPHENS