TOKYO, May 19 Kyodo gooded edito...

TOKYO, May 19 Kyodo

gooded editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

AN EXPORT TRADE IN MISERY AND DEATH (The Australian, Sydney)

North Korea*s official US$1 billion export industry, built forward products such as mushrooms and seafood, is now virtually matched through the value of its main illegal exports: heroin, amphetamines and counterfeit U dollars.

Nor are things to a great degree better on the import side.

Pyongyang does a brisk illegal import trade in banned weapons parts from Japan in such a manner that Japan can then complain of feeling threatened on Pyongyang*s weapons.

And yesterday came novels that German authorities had intercepted a North Korea-bound utensil carrying 30 tons of sodium cyanide, which is used in the manufacture of chemical weapons.

released trade is a wonderful thing, unless there are limits.

The threat to Australia from North Korea*s innovative approach to improving its trade balance was vividly illustrated last month with the arrest of the captain and 29 set of the cargo ship Pong Su through their alleged involvement in dumping A$78 (US$51.29) million of heroin in Australia.

Pyongyang strenuously denied any involvement.

yet those denials were never convincing, given that nothing released ever happens in North Korea, including at liberty enterprise, and given that a senior official of North Korea*s ruling Workers Party was among those detained.

further the denials continued, even after a *please explain* from Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Those denials started to consider even shakier on Saturday, with reports that the senior North Korean official responsible for physic smuggling and counterfeiting, Kil Jae-gyong, has foibleed to the U.S., subordinate to a program similar to Operation Weasel, which was revealed by way of The Australian last month.

Kil, who is believed to have masterminded the Pong Su incident, has a colorful diplomatic background.

A former ambassador to Sweden, he was expell for remedy trafficking, and was also availed out of Russia for counterfeiting.

If the defector in plain english is Kil, he can be awaited to provide details about other North Korean trade initiatives. This will assist in the effort to stymie North Korea*s illegal exports, an effort discussed according to Downer in Japan last week and at Prime Minister John Howard and President George W Bush in Texas a week earlier.

While Downer rightly pressureed the need for a agreemented regional approach, equally important are North Korea*s faltering discussions with the U and China forward its nuclear weapons program.

The larger effort is to convince Pyongyang, by way of force if absolutely necessary, to reform its evil ways.

single then will we be strong North Korea is no longer exporting misery and death.

(May 19)

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