Leaked cables discuss Kim’s health, N.K.’s future

Classified U.S. diplomatic cables, leaked by WikiLeaks on Monday, indicate that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s health has been deteriorating and his power to control the communist nation is increasingly weakened.

According to the secret documents, South Korea’s top official in charge of inter-Korean relations predicts Kim will die within five years due to his poor health. A top Chinese official revealed that Kim’s decision-making power has weakened since having a stroke in 2008 and this led him to hurriedly decide on his youngest son as successor. 

Under a diplomatic cable dated July 24, 2009, South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said, “Kim Jong-il is unlikely to live beyond 2015.” He made the comments in a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Kim Jong-il’s health and succession concerns.

“The current succession preparations for Kim Jong-un were ‘rushed’ and he anticipated additional ‘fireworks’ (either a third nuclear test or missile launches) at the end of the current 150-day campaign,” Minister Hyun said.

Another cable dated Jan.11, 2010 reveals analysis on China-North Korea trade and Kim Jong-il’s decision-making power. 

The analysis report said, “Kim Jong-il has recently reversed decisions and struggled to implement policies, showing increasing indecisiveness.” “Officials also chart their own course as different factions competing for Kim’s attention, making it difficult for Kim to set a firm, clear direction.”

Another diplomatic cable dated Oct. 26, 2009 describes a conversation between top officials from the United States and China over North Korean leader Kim’s drinking habit.

According to the conversation between U.S. Deputy Secretary James Steinberg and Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Kim Jong-il still drinks despite having had a stroke.

“Kim Jong-il had a reputation among the Chinese for being ‘quite a good drinker,’” Dai said. The Chinese official had asked Kim if he still drank alcohol. Kim said yes.

North Korea’s collapse and succession process
A cable dated Feb. 22, 2010 describes a conversation between South Korea’s then Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo and U.S. ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens about China’s position on North Korea. 

Over an official lunch, Chun, who is now President Lee Myung-bak’s top foreign policy and security adviser, said, “China would not be able to stop North Korea’s collapse following the death of Kim Jong-il.”

Chinese set to outnumber Japanese tourists

The number of overseas tourists entering Korea reached a record 8 million Monday, aided by the sharp rise in Chinese tourists offsetting a slim decline in Japanese visitors, the latest data from the Korea Tourism Organization showed. 

The milestone figure is a 12 percent increase from the same period last year when the nation recorded 7.16 million inbound visitors.

The KTO report also showed nearly 65 percent of foreign tourists were from Asia with Japanese and Chinese making up the bulk of the total with 2.79 million and 2.37 million, respectively.

Kim Kardashian 'dies' for a cause

Kim Kardashian ‘dies’ for a cause
Hollywood celeb Kim Kardashian wears a pink dress, her eyes closed, as she lies in a coffin. Is she dead really? Yes, at least in cyberspace.

She is playing dead in an advertisement to promote an online campaign to raise money for charity on the occasion of World AIDS Day, which fell on Tuesday.

The campaign was launched by Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit program dedicated to providing support to families affected by HIV/AIDS.

The organization was co-founded by musician/actress Alicia Keys and Kardashian, with Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and other famous celebs from the world joining the charity campaign. As part of it they will log off social networking sites and not sign back in until $1 million has been collected.

The ad caption reads, “Kim sacrificed her digital life to give real life to millions of others affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. That means no more Facebook or Twitter until we buy her life back. Visit BuyLife.org or text ‘KIM’ to ‘90999’ to buy her life now.”

SKT unveils world’s first telematics service in China

SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier, announced that it introduced the world’s first commercial mobile telematics service in China on Wednesday.

The E-MIV service will enable people to use their mobile phones to protect, control and manage their cars, according to SKT officials.

SKT has partnered with Shenzhen E-eye, a Chinese GPS service provider, to tap into the telematics market in China. SKT purchased a 65.5 percent stake in the Chinese company earlier in 2007.

Seoul, Washington, Tokyo working together on N.K.

Making official they will not resume talks with North Korea until the country honors previous denuclearization agreements, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are seeking coordinated measures to tackle the increased military tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. 

North Korea unleashed a barrage of artillery shells on a civilian-inhabited South Korean island near their tense western sea border a week ago, killing at least four people and ratcheting up military tensions to the highest level in more than two decades. Instead of condemning Pyongyang as most other countries have, China proposed over the weekend that six partners of the stalled talks on North Korea’s denuclearization meet in Beijing next month for an emergency session.

China, reluctant to ruin ties with its unpredictable but diplomatically useful ally North Korea, apparently wants the emergency session to work as a stepping stone in fully resuming the aid-for-denuclearization talks deadlocked since December 2008. 

Foreign ministers of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will meet in Washington in the first week of December to coordinate their stance toward Pyongyang’s recent provocation as well as Beijing’s proposal, according to the Foreign Ministry here. 

KEPCO steps up overseas resources development

Korea Electric Power Corp. is furthering efforts to expand overseas resource development and become one of global top five power companies by 2020. 

“Overseas resource development is a necessity rather than a choice for KEPCO. In a country that depends on imports for most of its energy needs, we acutely need overseas resources bases that would stabilize supply and shield against price fluctuations,” KEPCO CEO Kim Ssang-su said recently.

A stable energy resource has been a concern of strategic interest for Korea and other fast-growing economies, resulting in fierce international competition and often becoming a source of diplomatic spats. 

China recently halted supplying Japan rare earths, key to electronic goods, in retaliation for the latter’s refusal to release the captain of a Chinese fishing boat. China currently produces more than 97 percent of the total global rare earths supply. 

Korea, which depends on imports for most of its energy needs, has been stepping up overseas resource development projects over the past few years.

Most recently, Korea National Oil Corp. succeeded in a hostile takeover with Dana Petroleum of the U.K. in September while Korea Resources Corp. acquired a lithium development right for a Bolivian mine and November.

NASA to hold news conference on alien life

NASA said it would hold a news conference on Thursday to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.

In its press release, the agency said the news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website at http://www.nasa.gov

Media firms apply for new TV licenses

Eleven media groups, including Herald Media, the publisher of The Korea Herald, on Wednesday applied for licenses to operate new television channels that will be selected within the year.

Five consortia each led by Herald Media, CBS, Yonhap News Agency, Moneytoday and the Seoul Shinmun Daily -- signed up for the news-only network.

Six groups each led by the Maeil Business, the Donga Ilbo, the Korea Economic Daily, the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo and Taekwang applied for general programming.

The government plans to choose new channel operators to increase the global competitiveness of the local media industry and boost the content market, as well as offer more variety in programming for TV viewers. 

The Korea Communications Commission plans to simultaneously pick operators in two different categories of general programming and news sometime this month.

S. Korea, U.S. wrap up drills

South Korea and the U.S. wrapped up their four-day joint military exercise in the West Sea on Wednesday, which was largely seen as a move to pressure North Korea in the wake of the Nov. 23 artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

The large-scale maneuvers, which were initially planned in response to the March sinking of the corvette Cheonan, blamed on the communist state, ended with a logistic support exercise and an operation to escort the carrier strike group. 

During the exercise, the allied militaries showed off their combined military capacity against North Korean provocations by mobilizing some of their core assets such as the 97,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the 7,600-ton KDX-III Aegis-equipped destroyer King Sejong the Great.

“We conducted an exercise (on Wednesday) where the allied militaries practiced protecting key military assets such as the aircraft carrier through monitoring and close communication among warships making a vigilant formation around the carrier under multiple enemy threats,” Captain Kim Young-cheol, an official in charge of maritime operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a press briefing.