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| Axis of Evil |
| NKor threatens to scrap inter-Korean projects |
| 2003-02-02 |
| North Korea threatened on Sunday to scrap inter-Korean reconciliation projects if South Korea took action over an alleged secret cash payoff to the Stalinist country ahead of an historic summit in 2000. The threat from a North Korean government organ in charge of inter-Korean joint ventures followed allegations that South Korea's Hyundai group acted as a middleman to bribe the North to stage the summit. The Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee accused South Korea's opposition politicians and 'conservative anti-reunification forces' of a 'sinister' bid to fault economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Hyundai. The two sides 'cannot but be exposed only to confrontation, conflict and war' if 'even normal economic cooperation and deals between compatriots should be called into question and checked,' a spokesman warned in a statement on the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "Bribing us to do things in our own interests is just part of doing business here on the Korean Peninsula..." Hyundai has led cross-border tours and other projects between the two Koreas since North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung signed a peace accord on June 15, 2000. The accord prompted a series of reconciliation events including reunions of families split by the 1950-1953 Korean War, helping Kim Dae Jung win a Nobel Peace Prize. Like Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat have. He's in good company... But the South Korean President came under fire last week after a stunning revelation by government auditors that Hyundai Merchant Marine Co had funnelled some US$200 million to the North. Hyundai Merchant claimed the money, part of a loan extended by a state-run bank a week before the summit, was used to finance its projects in North Korea. But South Korea's opposition Grand National Party, which controls the National Assembly, has urged the president to answer allegations that the cash was a payoff for the summit. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |