RFA in the News – September 2008
RED ORBIT
Sept. 29 “Korea, North: Officials Reportedly Listen to Foreign Radios”
Text of report in English by Jung Kwon Ho: "North Korean officials listen to foreign radio", published by South Korean newspaper The Daily NK website on 25 August
The foreign radio broadcasts that North Koreans can access are “Voice of Korea,” from the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Voice of America (VOA), Korean broadcasting from the Yanbian region of China and other broadcasts from South Korean religious organizations and NGOs.
ASIA PULSE
Sept. 23 “North Korea conducts massive air force exercise: sources”
North Korea recently conducted a massive aerial exercise near its border with China and around its western coast, a military source said Tuesday, a drill rare in its scale for the energy-starved country.
"I was just there at the border two weeks ago and noticed for the first time North Korean fighter jets flying extensively near the border of China, and I was surprised because typically those things don't occur there," Moeller was quoted as saying by U.S. broadcaster Radio Free
Asia (RFA).
YONHAP
Sept. 19 “N. Korea begins autumn harvest amid food shortage”
North Korea has begun this year's fall harvest, its state-run radio said Thursday, amid reports that the country is suffering from a serious food shortage. …The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization told U.S.-based Radio Free Asia last month that the North will harvest a half million tons less than last year due to shortages of chemical fertilizer.
DONG-A-ILBO
Sept. 19, 2008 U.S. Denies N. Korean Leader is Recovering
A Washington document given to Seoul last weekend conflicts with the South’s opinion of Kim’s health, U.S. and South Korean sources confirmed yesterday.
…..The document, however, might be disclosed in a U.S. congressional briefing as the House Committee on Foreign Affairs demanded that the State Department give a briefing on Kim’s health, according to the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia.
KOREA TIMES
Sept. 17 “Washington Plans New Aid Shipment to Pyongyang”
The United States is going ahead with its next food aid shipment to North Korea despite lingering concerns about monitoring problems in aid distribution in the reclusive regime,
according to a report….Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Wednesday that the U.S. government has been loading some 30,000 tons of food aid to be shipped to the Stalinist country.
KOREA HERALD
Sept. 12 “Nuke negotiators hold breath on N.K. situation”
In an interview with U.S. Radio Free Asia, Hill [Assistant Secretary of State Chhristopher] was also quoted as saying that Washington also wished to be more flexible in the form of verifying North Korea's nuclear programs but that the "substance" of the verification must be "real."
NEW YORK TIMES
Sept. 2 “Uighurs on Both Sides of Conflict in China”
A report last week by Radio Free Asia, a station that promotes democracy and is financed by the American government, identified her as Anargul, 22, and said that she was suspected of aiding the people who carried out the checkpoint attack. The report said that she was the daughter of Amangul, a 50-year-old woman arrested after that attack.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
Sept. 2 “Police Officers Killed in China Were Ethnic Uyghurs”
A detailed report by Radio Free Asia, a radio station that promotes democracy and is financed by the U.S. government, said last week that the female suspect was named Anargul, 22, and was suspected of aiding the people who carried out the attack in Yamanya. The report said that Anargul is the daughter of Amangul, 50, a woman who was arrested after that attack.
YONHAP
Sept. 1 “McCain to demand CVID of N. Korean nukes: report”
U.S. Senator John McCain will demand that North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and include a full accounting of its alleged nuclear proliferation, a report said Sunday…."The U.S. will not waver in its demand for the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, with a full accounting of its proliferation activities," Radio Free Asia said in its Website, quoting a draft platform to be presented to the Republican National Convention for approval in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday.
