North Korea offered a rare apology Wednesday for unleashing dam water causing floods downstream blamed for six South Korean deaths and promised to alert Seoul to such measures in the future, an official said.
The release of dam water into the Imjin River last month without advance notice triggered floods that swept away six South Koreans who were camping and fishing. Seoul demanded an apology, but Pyongyang said at the time only that it "urgently" had to release the water because the dam's level was too high and that it would warn Seoul of similar releases in the future.
At 80-minute talks Wednesday suggested by South Korea and convened in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, the North expressed its regret, Unification Ministry spokesman Lee Jong-joo said. The North also said it had to discharge the waters to avoid a bigger catastrophe.
"It was regrettable that unintended human casualties occurred," the North Korean chief delegate told South Korean officials, Lee said.
The North also offered condolences to the bereaved South Korean families, Lee said.
The sides held a 15-minute session in the afternoon to wrap up Wednesday's talks.
Chief South Korean delegate Kim Nam-shik told reporters later in the day that the North again assured it would notify Seoul of similar releases and that the two sides agreed to meet again at an early date to discuss setting up a flood warning system.
Presidential spokesman Park Sun-kyoo welcomed the North's comments, saying they sent a "fairly positive signal" that it wants to improve relations with the South.
The discussions Wednesday took place amid reports that the North Korea may be preparing to test-fire more missiles following a barrage of missile launches off its east coast on Monday -- the regime's first since early July.
The latest launches appeared to be meant to improve the accuracy of North Korea's missiles, a senior South Korean presidential official told reporters. He asked not to be identified because of the issue's sensitivity.
South Korea has detected indications that North Korea is also preparing to fire short-range missiles off its west coast, Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified military official. The newspaper said the North has announced a no-sail zone in areas off the country's east and west coasts for Oct. 10-20 -- an apparent signal the country could carry out more missile tests.
The Yonhap news agency carried a similar report.
South Korea's Defense Ministry declined to comment on the intelligence issue.
North Korea has recently reached out to the U.S. and South Korea following months of tension over its nuclear and missile tests earlier this year. Leader Kim Jong Il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last week that his government might return to stalled six-nation negotiations on its nuclear program depending on the outcome of direct talks it seeks with the U.S.
In Beijing, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday that Washington will not meet directly with North Korea until Pyongyang commits to rejoining six-nation disarmament talks and abides by commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs.
"The Chinese indicated that they think they heard from North Korea that they are prepared to accept that framework. But again, we will have to test that, explore that and see if that is indeed the case," he said. Campbell was in Beijing for talks likely aimed at President Barack Obama's visit next month.
Former President George W. Bush expressed confidence Wednesday that the North Korean nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy, but he cautioned Kim is likely to continue to prove a formidable negotiator who "will no doubt test the system, no doubt try to find weaknesses."
Bush told the World Knowledge Forum, an annual conference sponsored by a South Korean business newspaper, that the best way to bring peace to the Korean peninsula is through the six-nation talks.
The disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan were last held in Beijing in December.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, which means the two Koreas are still technically at war.
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Associated Press Writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.
Like a seasonal flu, the verbal virus that is sometimes called Clinton derangement syndrome has struck again, beginning only moments after the 42nd president of the United States appeared on television screens around the world with the two journalists he had helped to rescue from prison in North Korea. And like certain viruses, the syndrome tends to hit hardest among a very specific segment of the population. Most Americans appear to be immune most of the time, as do the majority of human beings on the planet, so this pathology will probably never become a global pandemic.
But pundits everywhere -- from the newsrooms of the "liberal media" to the blogosphere to the Republican noise machine -- seem to be the preferred hosts of the pathogen. While not lethal or physically disabling, it troubles their minds -- and strikes the same people over and over and over again. Symptoms include the recitation of dull sexual japes, sour reflections on celebrity, mindless pronouncements on foreign policy, false accusations of grandstanding, and even furious attacks on innocent individuals who dare to express admiration or gratitude to Bill Clinton (on this particular occasion for saving their lives).
On display in the wake of his successful effort to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee is the purest and most virulent form of a disorder all too familiar to anyone who lived through the Clinton presidency.
Here was an effort that exemplified the best of America -- a society that values the lives of its citizens enough to send a former head of state, with all the power of government behind him, to the aid of two women in distress. Here was a happy reunion, bringing wives home to their husbands and a mother back to her little girl, that surely uplifted the spirit of anyone who actually believes in family values. Here was a moment of pride and joy.
But not for Gordon Liddy, the demented felon and radio bigot who cackled about "Ling Ling and Wee Wee being locked up for nine hours in an airplane with Bill Clinton." Not for Rush Limbaugh, the obsessive guttersnipe who wondered aloud whether Clinton "hit on those two female journalists on the long flight home." Not for Andrea Peyser, the curdled tabloid columnist who insisted that "the whole shebang was nakedly scripted and staged as a device to help rehabilitate the image of former President Bill Clinton" (and who neglected to mention that Clinton did not speak to the eagerly waiting press corps and has given not a single interview on the North Korea mission). Not for Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who predictably seized on Clinton's mission as an opportunity for gratuitous and ugly insults to his wife, weirdly imagining that the prisoner release was "some clever North Korean revenge plot, giving the limelight to Daddy to punish Mommy." And not for the editors of the Huffington Post, who posted a very strange headline -- "Bill Upstages Hillary ... Once Again" -- on an Associated Press story that didn’t mention her at all.
Analysts have long speculated on the sexual envy that may or may not predispose the syndrome’s sufferers to say these things. What seems clear, however, is that no matter what humanitarian acts Clinton may perform in his post-presidency, he cannot do anything without provoking such inappropriate and embarrassing outbursts. The result, of course, is that their remarks always reveal more about them than about their intended target.
Consider the reaction of the former president’s former advisor Dick Morris, who still pontificates on the Fox News Channel airwaves as a Clinton expert, although he hasn’t spoken with either of them for more than 10 years. Denouncing Clinton’s trip as "awful" and "ridiculous," he suggested with a sickening grin that Ling and Lee should instead have been left to "live with the consequences of their acts" -- essentially a death sentence in a hard labor camp. (Is that what any Fox commentator would say in the unlikely event that any of their colleagues had the guts to try to report on life in North Korea -- and got arrested?)
John Podhoretz didn’t go quite that far in Commentary, but he too felt deeply disturbed by Clinton’s achievement. As a "journalist" who spends most of his life watching television and eating ice cream, he felt moved to mock Ling and Lee for seeking to expose the dark side of the North Korean regime -- and to throw in a few bitter words about Al Gore for employing them at Current TV. If that sounds bizarre coming from a self-styled hard-liner, it is simply another symptom of the mental imbalance induced in some people by the sight of Clinton (and Gore).
Finally there are the "serious" commentators, most notably former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, the former diplomat best known for disdaining diplomacy and rattling the atomic saber until he was mercifully relieved of public responsibilities. In him the syndrome’s most noticeable effect is a severe case of amnesia. On the pages of the Washington Post, he complained that despite "decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so." Leaving aside the question of whether this situation in any way fits that description, Bolton has clearly forgotten the Iran-Contra affair, when his colleagues in the Reagan administration, all the way up to and including the president, negotiated with Iran’s leaders to release hostages in exchange for deadly missiles -- violating statute and policy. He also seems to have forgotten how he tried to help cover up that outrage as an assistant attorney general.
But perhaps this latest outbreak should be considered mild, when compared with the devastating episodes of years past. Nobody is claiming that Clinton murdered or drugged anyone on his trip to Korea, that he profited by selling a real estate parcel there, or that he is a secret agent of the Dear Leader.
They’re saving all that for Barack Obama.
As noted earlier, one-time U.N. Ambassador John Bolton wasn't exactly wild about former President Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea, even if it did get two American journalists released from detention and 12 years of hard labor.
Specifically, Bolton worried that Clinton's vist "comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists," and -- though the administration repeatedly emphasized that the former president's trip was a private one and he was not representing the government -- in the Washington Post, he wrote, "[I]t seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so."
Bolton's ideological comrade, Charles Krauthammer, took a similar position, saying on Fox News Tuesday night, "[I]t was a hostage ransom. No question at all."
Except, oops -- maybe not.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs got a question about this at his briefing on Wednesday. Here's the exchange:
Q Did President Clinton have -- and you may have discussed this on the call last night -- any authorization to make any kind of offers or suggestions for rewards for releasing these journalists?
MR. GIBBS: There were no messages that were passed.
Former President Bill Clinton has apparently succeeded in his quest to get North Korea to free two American journalists. According to the Associated Press, North Korean state media reports that Kim Jong Il has pardoned the reporters and ordered their release.
The reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were arrested in March. In June, they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
Update: The reporters' families have issued this statement:
The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are overjoyed by the news of their pardon. We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens.
We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.
The case of the smuggled $134 billion Treasury bonds?
Consider it closed.
Authorities said they found 249 certificates worth $500 million each and 10 bonds worth more than $1 billion each, as well as other alleged original banking statements.
Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt, said Thursday the paper is phony.
"Based on the photos we've seen on the Web, they're not even close to looking like a Treasury security," he said.
Thankfully, we can be sure that a mere declaration of forgery by a Treasury spokesperson will do nothing to stop the universe of mystery bond conspiracy theories from expanding endlessly. I give it a week before both the 9/11 truthers and the Obama birthers get involved.
UPDATE: The most detailed story yet comes from the Financial Times. The Italian Mafia are now considered possibly involved.
Excellent.
North Korean counterfeiters, Filipino scamsters, religious cultists, and Ben Bernanke: the cast of characters rumored to be involved in the mystery of the $134 billion worth of Treasury bonds that two "Japanese citizens" attempted to smuggle from Italy into Switzerland a little over a week ago is growing at the speed of conspiracy theory light.
Karl Denninger, who has been opining on matters online since before the Web was a mere mote in Tim Berners-Lee's eye, wonders at The Market Ticker whether the U.S. Treasury has "has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn't want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years."
I remain puzzled, and am not advancing the above theory as fact.
It is, however, one of the few explanations that actually fits the facts, and for that reason, I think we need some answers. If in fact previous administrations were issuing "off-book" Treasury debt in this fashion to sovereigns then implications are truly explosive as such issues are blatant and outrageous unlawful acts and would expose everyone involved to severe criminal penalties.
Sean Mayer, of Dead Cats Bouncing says "the significance of this story is that it highlights the very topical importance of retaining investor faith in a fiat currency; if the supply of money is suddenly perceived to be vastly higher than believed, whether as a result of policy or widespread fraud, confidence can be badly shaken."
Writing at Examiner.com Craig Meister fears that "that sovereign governments may be trying to dump US treasuries on the black market for fear that they soon will be worth very little."
Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs tells us that if the bonds are actually fake, it is without question the work of nefarious North Korean counterfeiters. But a DailyKos diarist, problem is, spawns his own ramshackle theory tying the news to purported U.S. government market manipulation and speculates that such shenanigans may explain why "Bernanke and Geithner fear an audit of the Fed and full disclosure to Congress for their activities..."
But by far the most fascinating, and wide-ranging disquisition on the subject comes from Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire. Cannon provides pictures of the bonds, and drawing on documents that he says were once online but now aren't, suggests a notorious Filipino fraudster may be involved, along with a wacky Phillippines-based religious cult headed by "Queen Salvacion A. Legaspi." Some fine Internet sleuthing by Cannon discovers numerous references in the Phillipines to a stash of mysterious "Federal Reserve Bonds" dating back to the 1930s. There's even a YouTube video produced by the cult documenting a hoard of these very bonds some of which are worth $500 million a piece.
Which brings us the only new details reported over the weekend in the English-language mainstream press. Bloomberg tells us that:
The seized notes include 249 securities with a face value of $500 million each and 10 additional bonds with a value of more than $1 billion, the police force said on its Web site. Such high denominations would not have existed in 1934, the purported issue date of the notes, Mecarelli said. Moreover, the "Kennedy" classification of the bonds doesn't appear to exist, he said.
Cannon also digs up a note from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2005:
The Federal Reserve is aware of several scams involving high denomination Federal Reserve notes and bonds, often in denominations of 100 million or 500 million dollars, dating back to the 1930s, usually 1934. In each of these schemes, fraudulent instruments are claimed to be part of a long-lost supply of recently discovered Federal Reserve notes or bonds.
Fraudsters often falsely claim that the purported Federal Reserve notes or bonds that they hold are somehow very special and are not known to the public because they are so secret. Fraudsters have attempted to sell these worthless instruments, or to redeem or exchange them at banks and other financial institutions, or to secure loans or obtain lines of credit using the fictitious instruments as collateral.
The Federal Reserve has never issued any bonds or notes with coupons attached. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is not aware of any currency or debt stockpile of large denomination Federal Reserve notes from the 1930s and warns that any institution that pays out on such a claim does so at its own risk.
Of course, isn't that exactly what you'd suspect the Treasury or the Fed would say, if they had indeed been surreptitiously creating high denomination bonds or notes to fund secret deficits? We will keep watching this important story!
Damn You Bill Clinton!
An anti-war, anti-Nuke Obama supporter says 'WTF?'
ABC Moran's Premature Tweet: Did Obama Call Kanye a Jackass?
Great job, Bill Clinton