2003.08.25

Ship Arrives Update (Kyodo)   Kyodo finally got around to putting out an English-language story on this. 2003.08.25

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Ship Arrives -- UPDATE   More on the Mangyongbong 92 and the Transportation Ministry announcement: The ministry say that the vessel does not meet "international treaty obligations." Using this phrase is significant because it conveys that the problems found are not something exclusive to Japanese regulations but are trans-national. This could be seen as an attempt to blunt and expected outlash from Pyongyang tomorrow. The ministry also says that the ferry, suspected in the past of espionage and smuggling,  cannot leave Niigata until it is up to safety standards or presents a "detailed timetable to make changes." That last phrase is also significant as it gives North Korea a face-saving way to expedite departure. Prediction: The ship leaves before Wednesday evening, a delay of about 36 hours. For those interested, here are the problems (and solutions): 1. Faulty air ventilation duct in the ship's galley (compromise: ship can depart if galley is not used) 2. Emergency Signs not properly illuminated (new signs will be bought Tuesday at the latest) 3. Emergency radiophone for use on high seas (substitute device OK and promise made to buy proper phone) 4. Cannot properly discharge water from engine room  -- i.e. oil-water separator (repair work underway and will continue all night)  5. Must have fire extinguishers that can be loaded with sea water (new ones to be bought early Tuesday)   2003.08.25

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Omedeto Musashi-Fuchu! (AP via NY Times)   These kids who won the Little League World Series are from the western outskirts of Tokyo. Nice to see the hometown boys take the third most important prize for a Japanese amateur baseball player. Yep, that's right, more important is winning one of the high school championship tournaments  played twice a year at hallowed Koshien. 2003.08.25

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Suicide is Painless in Japan (Washington Post via Agonist) Online suicide pacts in Japan. WaPo: Glued to a computer screen in his north Tokyo apartment, the stocky, part-time sushi delivery man spent weeks searching the recesses of the Internet. Going simply by the handle "Murata," the 28-year-old surfed for online companions harboring his same dark interest: the desire to die. He found what he was looking for on a host of new Japanese-language Web sites such as "Underground Suicide" and "Deadline." Promising to supply most of the materials, he made arrangements to kill himself with two anonymous Internet friends on a mid-May afternoon. Face to face for the first time, the three young men drove to a tranquil mountain pass six hours north of Tokyo. They shared sleeping pills, and then -- following detailed instructions posted on a Web site -- set charcoal alight inside their car and died from carbon monoxide poisoning. "Maybe he didn't have high hopes for the future, but it is still so hard to understand how he could have done it," said Murata's 35-year-old brother, who shared their apartment. He spoke on condition that both their names be withheld. "I've disconnected the Internet at home, at least while our family comes to terms with this." The deaths of the three men marked only one incident in an extraordinary string of Internet suicides to hit Japan. Over the past six months, police investigators say at least 32 people -- mostly in their teens and twenties -- have killed themselves nationwide after meeting strangers online. Many more young Japanese have entered into online suicide pacts, but either failed in their attempts or backed out at the last minute. Psychiatrists and suicide experts are linking the phenomenon to a profound national identity crisis during Japan's 13-year economic funk. Indeed, the Internet deaths come at a time when Japan is undergoing an alarming surge in its overall suicide rate -- with financial problems cited as the fastest growing reason for despair. [The Agonist] 2003.08.25

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Japan-China Disputed Island (Mainichi)   This story has been overlooked today with all the focus on events in Niigata. It appears to be a minor incursion, but these sort of events do provoke diplomatic complaint from the Chinese.  As both China and Japan muscle up in the years ahead expect larger trouble over disputed territory. I have long predicted that territorial rights will spark another war in Asia involving the Japanese (we're talking some 20 or more years down the road). It will involve not oil, but fishing rights as stocks dwindle and the variety of fishes that end up on sushi menus disappear or become delicacies similarly priced to Beluga caviar. Blue fin tuna is slowly getting there. 2003.08.25

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Ship Arrives UPDATE (AP via Times Union)   This is going to be a major development if the problems are not corrected in a day or so. DPRK likely to issue bitter statement. 2003.08.25

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BULLETIN -- Mangyonbong-92 to be prevented from leaving Japan Tuesday 2003.08.25

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Ship Arrives (Kyodo)   More on this later today... 2003.08.25

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Niigata Prepares (Reuters via NY Times) August 24, 2003 Security Tight in Japan Ahead of N.Korea Visit By REUTERS Filed at 7:29 a.m. ET NIIGATA, Japan (Reuters) - Security was tight in the Japanese port of Niigata Sunday, a day before a visit by a North Korean ferry that is expected to provoke protests by right-wingers and others opponents of the communist state. Police in a southern Japan city evacuated 80 families after suspicious packages were found near Korean-linked organizations. Bomb threats linked to the visit were made against a pro-North group and a bank run by ethnic Koreans, media said. The Mangyongbong-92 ferry is due to visit Niigata for the first time in seven months Monday, two days before the start of six-country crisis talks in China over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Japan is taking part in the talks. The North Korean ferry used to make voyages every 10 to 12 days to the northwestern port but the service was suspended in January after disturbances between passengers and demonstrators at the dock. About 1,500 police will be deployed for the visit. Sunday, police patrolled the pier where the ferry is due to dock as television crew staked out camera positions. Coast guard vessels were also at the pier. Right-wing groups opposed to communist North Korea are expected to gather Monday with their trademark loudspeaker vans to blare out their anti-North message. Families and supporters of Japanese citizens who were abducted decades ago by North Korean agents to train their spies were also planning a protest. A visit by the ferry in June was canceled after opposition by right-wing activists and residents. BOMB SCARES Several newspapers said they got phone calls late on Saturday saying bombs were planted at a bank run by ethnic Koreans and at the office of a pro-North group in the southern city of Fukuoka. Fukuoka police said they found suspicious Thermos-like containers near a branch of the pro-North Korean General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and near a branch of the credit union. About 80 families were evacuated early Sunday while a police bomb squad removed the containers, a Fukuoka police official said. One of them was empty, but police found a gas cylinder in the other and were checking to see if it was an explosive. In Okayama prefecture, police found a bullet hole at the entrance of the head office of the same credit union. The ferry is the only direct passenger link between Japan and North Korea. The two have no diplomatic ties and their already tense relationship has been frayed by the crisis over the North's nuclear ambitions. Diplomats from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia will begin talks in the Chinese capital, Beijing, Wednesday in an attempt to defuse the standoff. Anti-North Korean sentiment has risen in Japan since Pyongyang admitted last September to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies. Five abductees, three from Niigata, have returned home. 2003.08.25

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