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The United States will not remove North Korea from list of terrorism

Tokyo (Reuters) – North American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, indicated to Japan that Washington will not remove North Korea from the list of countries that support terrorism, according to the Japanese press.

The White House already had clarified that it does not expect an agreement with Pyongyang in the deadline that it has for displaying a plan of verification of its nuclear programs, but indicated that conversations still continue.

In Washington, the Department of State confirmed a telephone conversation between both ministers, indicating that Rice had made clear that there were plans not to remove  North Korea from the list.

"She confirmed that we will not take any measures and that the period of 45 days for the notification is a minimum and not a limit" a civil servant of the Department of State said, asking not to be identified.

The spokesman of the Department of State, Robert Wood, re-stated the position of the United States, in which North Korea could only be removed from the list after a solid plan of verification

Washington has promised North Korea that it could be removed of the American list of nations that support terrorism from August 11, if the plan of verification was culminated, but American civil servants have assured that it was not a fixed date.

The removal from the list of terrorism would be seen as the end of the sanctions of the United States, which have almost isolated to North Korea from the international banking and also would open the doors for multilateral aid.

Japan announces progress in its negotiations with North Korea

Tokyo (EFE) – Japan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Masahiko Komura, declared that "there has been progress” during the contacts with North Korea to solve the issue of the Japanese citizens kidnapped in the ‘70 and ‘80 by north Koreans agents.

According to Kyodo agency, Komura said that both parts have approached their positions during the conversations held in China in order to re- investigate the kidnapping, according to the principle of "action by action". Komura emphasized the fact that Japan has achieved that North Korea accept the Japanese demands.

During the contacts made from Monday 11, Japan and North Korea have decided that by the autumn Pyongyang will initiate an investigation on the destiny of the kidnapped, and that in return Tokyo will retire some of its economic sanctions to the communist country.

Both countries disagree on the number of kidnapped Japanese citizens that remain in North Korean territory, as well as on what had happened with them. According to past North Korean investigations, 8 of the 17 kidnapped that appear in the list of the Japanese government are dead, a fact that Tokyo finds not very convincing.

In October 2002 five of the kidnapped returned to Japan, and North Korea assured that the other four considered kidnapped by the Japanese government, have never entered North Korean territory.

Meat from the of the United States arrived at Korea after suspension of 4 years and 7 months

Seoul (KBS World) - Cow meat with bone from North American origin arrived again to Korea, after 4 years and 7 months of suspension of that commerce, and began to be distributed during the first days of August.

The Korean National Veterinary Investigation Service informed that the first 1.5 tons of ribs arrived on July 29 to Incheon International Airport, and on the following day the first sanitary inspection concluded.

The total volume of imported bovine products was sent according to the program of quality evaluation QSA, and to the new sanitary requirements determined by the governments of Seoul and Washington, which guarantees safe meat.

The national service announced that only 3% of the meat with bone will be put under inspection, whereas other pieces will undergo a meticulous analysis.

This commercial operation was concretized after three months of huge demonstrations throughout all the country, in which millions of people turned into the streets in opposition to the government announcement of authorizing the entrance of North American bovine meat.

Tourism to North Korean mount Geumgang suspended, and South Korean employees return

The eleven South Koreans that were ordered to depart from the Geumgang Mount by North Korea, have finished their returning to Seoul on Monday 11, according to the announcement of the South Korean National Ministry of Reunification.

The first in retiring from the region were three of the nine workers who have been working in the building of the Inter-korean permanent contacts office. The rest of the expelled group, that is to say the six employees of the office of contacts and the two civil servants of the South Korean Tourism Organization, returned after them to Seoul.

In addition, all the articles were retired from the duty free store, after  the retirement of the tourist organization workers, that were in charge of their sale and management.

Given the measures taken by Pyongyang, Seoul government and Hyundai Asan conglomerate, decided to order the retirement of all the South Koreans that were in the Geumgang Mount, except for the 117 persons whose presence in the zone is considered essential.

The tourist program to the North Korean Geumgang Mount was cancelled as a result of the death of a South Korean visitor who was shot by a North Korean soldier.

Korea will firmly defend sovereignty over the Dokdo islands

Seoul (KBS World) - South Korea president, Lee Myung Bak, declared that he will handle with determination all the issues related to the sovereignty of the insular territory of Dokdo.

In a meeting with members and advisors of the recently created Dokdo Investigation Institute, the president made clear that Dokdo is undoubtedly Korean from an historical point of view and according to international law. He also added that the defense of the sovereignty is a right that the Constitution confers to the president of the Nation.

Lee declared that the controversy around these Korean islands must be meticulously dealt with, and on a long term strategy. He also emphasized the importance of forming a favorable world-wide opinion through a more active promotion. He asked this to be done by the mentioned Dokdo Investigation Institute.

The president indicated that there must be no distinction in the defense of Dokdo between government and citizens, and stressed that nobody will be able to try to seize them if all the citizens become defender of these islands.

Commercial relationship between Buenos Aires Provincial government and South Korea remains strong

Seoul (NOVA Agency) Alfredo Atanasof, Secretary of Investments, Exports and International Cooperation Promotion of the Province of Buenos Aires, met in South Korea with vice-minister of Economy and Knowledge of that country, Kwon Tae Kyun. With him, he discussed the possibilities for strengthening bows between both nations, within the framework of the official visit that the Argentinean civil servant made to the Asian state.

In that frame, Atanasof - that went to the meeting with Argentine ambassador in South Korea, Alfredo Alcorta- emphasized the work that his Secretariat is doing in order to “re position the production of the province of Buenos Aires in the world”.

Tae Kyun, on the other hand, assured him that “Korea is determined to fortify its bonds with Latin America, being Argentina the most convenient platform to achieve this objective. We need to see each other face, to know each other, in order to begin making better businesses”.

Atanasof made this five day tour to Korea which included the presentation of around twenty infrastructure projects, in a road show organized by the Commercial Office of the South Korean Embassy (KOTRA), with the intention of making that market aware of these initiatives, and thus advancing in the deepening of the commercial relationship between Buenos Aires and the South Korean republic.