2003.11.05

North, South Korea Prepare for Economic Talks (with audio) [VOANews.com Headlines] The two Koreas will once again try to break the year-long impasse over the North's nuclear weapons program at economic talks starting Thursday. Seoul will use the opportunity to push Pyongyang to attend another round of multilateral talks.   2003.11.05

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South Korean Missiles (Yonhap) South Korea to get longer-range missiles from U.S. that can most of the DPRK.   2003.11.05

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DPJ Wants Marines Off Okinawa (Stars & Stripes) If the DPJ wins the general election it will push to get U.S. Marines off Okinawa, vows party leader Naoto Kan.     2003.11.05

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2-Party Elections a Foreign Concept in Rural Japan [New York Times] "Manifesto" is the buzzword of Japan's political season. Each party must have one. Newspaper headlines squeeze it in. Policies and ideas, the lofty sounding foreign word implies, will now determine the outcome of elections, instead of pork-barrel politics. But in a corner of rural Japan, where public works and the heavily protected konnyaku yam are the main motors of the economy, the manifesto is as alien a concept as its promise of political transformation.   2003.11.05

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Yakuza Shootout (Mainichi) One gangster injured in a yakuza shootout in the streets of Kobe last night.     2003.11.05

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U.S. Base Internet Bomb Threat Arrest (Kyodo) Okinawa police says they have arrested an unemployed man in Osaka today on suspicion of posting a bomb threat against a U.S. military base on an anonymous Internet bulletin board.   2003.11.05

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N. Korea Opposes U.N. Nuke Watchdog Vote (AP). North Korea voted against a resolution supporting the U.N. nuclear agency late Tuesday, calling the U.N. body "a tool of the United States" and using derogatory language ("Japs") to accuse Japan of backing U.S. plans to attack the communist nation.   2003.11.05

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Loan Shark Trial (Kyodo) A gangster known as the "loan shark king" goes on trial in Tokyo.     2003.11.05

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Decision Postponed on North Korean Nuclear Project (Reuters). An international consortium working on North Korean light-water nuclear reactors on Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to bow to U.S. pressure to halt the project because of Washington's concerns about Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions, a spokesman for the group said.   2003.11.05

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