The Beat October 2002

By Joseph Steinberg

South Korea

August 28: Chang Dae-Whan, President Kim Dae-jung‘s second prime ministerial nominee, was rejected by the parliament, 151 votes to 112, because of alleged tax evasion.
September 2: Authorities in Kangwon province began repair operations after Typhoon Rusa killed at least 184 people from Jeju Island to Kangnung and caused at least 255 billion won in property damage.
September 10: President Kim nominated Kim Suk-soo, a former judge and head of the National Election Commission, to be prime minister.
-The Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths concluded that a South Korean soldier, Private Ho Won-kun, was killed by a South Korean officer on April 2, 1984, and that battalion-level officers conspired to hide the truth.
September 11: The Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths concluded, that 8 persons were wrongfully executed as Communist spies by the Park Chung-hee government on April 9, 1975
September 12: 36 North Korean refugees from Beijing arrived in Seoul via Singapore and the Philippines.
September 16: The US Embassy and US Forces Korea issued a statement of protest to the South Korean government and national police for failing to stop the unprovoked assault and kidnapping of a soldier, and attacks upon two other soldiers, by members of a student protest group, led by Suh Kyung-won, an activist convicted of espionage and traveling to North Korea in the 1980s, on a subway car in Seoul on September 14. One soldier was also forced to apologize for the June 13 deaths of two schoolgirls at a student protest, and then removed to a nearby hospital to apologize to Mr. Suh. Mr. Suh contended he was attacked first without provocation.
-The North Korean national flag was raised in Busan at the site of the 14th Asian Games.
September 17: Chung Mong-joon, former co-chairman of the KOWOC, a FIFA vice-president, and sixth son of Hyundai Corporation‘s founder Chung Yu-jung, announced his presidential candidacy as an independent.
September 18: Simultaneous ceremonies occurred at Torasan and the Unification Observatory in South Korea and Kaesong, North Korea for the reconnection of two railroads connecting North and South Korea.

Japan

August 27: The Tokyo District Court ruled that, even though the Japanese Army‘s Unit 731 had committed biological terror before and during WW2, plaintiffs, under international law, had no right to seek compensation from a state, and that the current Japanese government was not liable for the WW2 Japanese government‘s actions.
September 2: Noboya Minami, President of Tokyo Electric, resigned after confessing to falsifying documents regarding safety in nuclear reactors.
September 3: Reform candidate Yasuo Tanaka won a prefectural election in Nagano, promising to curb corruption in the construction industry.
September 4: The commander of the USS Kitty Hawk, Captain Thomas Hejl, was dismissed after a unrelated series of crimes, including drug possession and robbery, committed by sailors under his command, occurred in Yokosuka over a period of months.
September 9: A Foreign Ministry official announced, that Tokyo will likely cut aid to China, because of concerns about Beijing‘s military buildup, as the foreign minister concluded three days of talks in Beijing.
September 10: An H2-A rocket was successfully launched carrying two satellites.
-Six family members, including one spouse and five children, of Red Army guerrillas who hijacked a plane in 1970, arrived in Tokyo seeking abode.
September 11: A North Korean vessel, sunk in December, 2001 in Japanese waters, was salvaged and shipped to Kagoshima for inspection.
September 18: The governor of the Bank of Japan announced swapping currency for bonds to bail out Japan‘s largest commercial banks.
September 24: Tokyo announced it might request the whereabouts of more missing persons presumed kidnapped by North Korean agents, after aggrieved parents of several persons, reported dead by Kim Jong-il on September 21, noted discrepancies in North Korea‘s statement.

Taiwan

September 5: The European Parliament passed a resolution, supporting Taiwan‘s entry into the World Health Organization. China protested the next day.
September 10: President Chen Shui-bien, in a nationally televised speech, called on Beijing to withdraw its missiles aimed at Taiwan and labeled China a terrorist threat.
September 23: Taiwan‘s First Lady, Wu Shu-chen, arrived in Washington, DC for an unofficial visit.

China

August 24: Security agents quietly detained Wan Yanhai, a former Health Ministry official and AIDS activist, for posting a leaked, secret government report about Henan province‘s AIDS situation via an online email group.
August 27: China signed a contract to buy 38 Sukhoi-30 MK fighter-bombers from Russia for over $1.6 billion.
August 30: A Beijing court sentenced two boys to life imprisonment, and two accomplices to lesser sentences, for a fire in an internet café which killed 25 people near Haidian University on June 16.
September 2: Chinese security guards barred 8 North Koreans from entering the Ecuadorian embassy in Beijing.
-A Chinese Foreign Ministry official defended Beijing‘s banning of the US-based search engine site, Google.
September 3: 15 North Korean men and women broke into the grounds of a German government-run school in Beijing and requested asylum.
September 4: President Jiang Zemin and South Korean presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang held a 35-minute meeting to discuss various issues, including North Korean refugees.
September 6: Beijing banned US-based search engine site, AltaVista.
-Beijing admitted, that by the end of the year, 1 million people would be HIV-positive.
September 10: An envoy of the exiled Dalai Lama visited Beijing for a low-level meeting with Chinese officials. On September 13, the same group arrived in Tibet. On September 17, the Chinese chairman of Tibet‘s regional government approved a visit to Tibet by the Dalai Lama on two conditions, first, that he travel as a Chinese citizen, and, second, that he not engage in anti-government activities.
September 17: Police in Tangshan, Jiangsu Province arrested a man who allegedly confessed to poisoning a rival‘s breakfast snacks, probably causing the deaths of at least 38 people.
September 18: 15 Falun Gong members went on trial in Changchun for hacking into television broadcasts on March 5.
September 22: Hong Kong‘s Department of Health reported the first incidence of locally contracted dengue fever.

North Korea

September 3: The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Authority (KOTRA) announced, that foreign companies would be allowed to buy over 50% of shares in North Korean companies.
September 13: 455 South Koreans met 100 North Korean relatives at the Mount Keumgang resort for a 3-day reunion.
September 16: South Korean negotiators agreed to reconnect the Kyonggi and Tonghae railroad lines at Torasan Station and to loan the North Koreans 50 billion won for construction equipment.
September 17: Japan‘s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met Kim Jong-il for 3-days of talks in Pyongyang. Kim apologized for North Korea‘s abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, and confirmed 6 out of 11 had died. Kim promised to return the remaining Japanese citizens. Both countries signed a communiqué in which Pyongyang pledged to bide by international agreements on nuclear issues. On September 19, Koizumi reported that Pyongyang had also agreed to allow inspectors into North Korean nuclear power plants.
September 23: North Korea announced the appointment of Yang Bin, a Chinese tycoon, as governor of the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region.
-North Korean athletes arrived in Busan for the Asian Games.
September 25: North Korea returned the remains of 8 American military personnel from the Korean War.
September 26: North Korea promised to fully disclose information on Japanese nationals abducted by it‘s agents. Japan is to send a fact-finding mission to North Korea on the 28th regarding the abduction of around a dozen Japanese nationals during the 1970‘s and 1980‘s.