Text b. Koreas Plan to Hold Talks on Military, South Says (The New York Times), September 28, 2010) By mark McDonald

SEOUL, South Korea — Just a day after a new leadership structure had taken shape in North Korea, with the youngest son of the nation’s leader being awarded major military and political posts, the South Korean Defense Ministry said that the two Koreas held military talks on Thursday at the border village of Panmunjom.

The two sides had not held such talks in two years.

A South Korean defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to discuss the agenda of the working-level meeting. But it was widely expected that South Korea would raise the issue of the sinking of one of its warships in March.

The renewal of military talks with the South was proposed this month by the North Koreans, apparently to focus on preventing naval clashes along their disputed western sea border.

Political analysts in Seoul were reluctant to connect the sudden resumption of military negotiations to what appeared to be the emergence of the son, Kim Jong-un, as the eventual successor to his father, Kim Jong-il, as the supreme North Korean leader. The younger Mr. Kim, who is believed to be 27 or 28, was given the rank of four-star general in the People’s Army and was named a deputy chairman of the military commission of the Workers’ Party.

A senior military post for Kim Jong-un was a prerequisite for his ascendancy to power. His father’s “military first” doctrine has given the armed forces the leading role in the political life of the country, even ahead of the Workers’ Party. Any future leader of North Korea would need a substantial military paragraph on his or her résumé.

Kim Jong-un’s other significant new positions — he now has a seat on the party’s Central Committee and is one of two deputy chairmen of the party’s military commission — are seen as more purely political and policy-making posts. The military commission’s other new deputy chairman is Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho. A seasoned military officer, Marshal Ri, 68, has been chief of the army’s general staff. He was also given a seat on the party’s Politburo, making him a superior of the younger Mr. Kim, whom he is expected to tutor and guide.

“Ri should be seen as the right-hand man for the inexperienced Kim Jong-un in the military,” Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at Sejong Institute near Seoul, told the Yonhap News Agency. He will “play a crucial role in the transfer of power from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un,” Mr. Cheong said.

But other analysts said the changes were not likely to be well received by North Koreans who see the dynastic succession as a contradiction of the state’s Communist ideology.

“This kind of succession is very rare, and the ordinary North Korean people won’t like it,” said Yun Duk-kim, a North Korea expert and a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul. But, he added: “It’s difficult for people to show their displeasure, of course. It’s a totalitarian system. They just obey.”

The North was also thought to have objected to propaganda leaflets that were dropped over the border by South Korean activists. The leaflets talked about Kim Jong-il’s frailty and his lavish lifestyle in the face of widespread hunger. They called on North Koreans to rise up against the regime.

South Korea and the United States have blamed a North Korean torpedo attack for the sinking of its ship, the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Seoul has demanded an apology from the North, which has denied any involvement.

A statement by the United Nations Security Council in July expressed “deep concern” over the Cheonan’s sinking, but did not find North Korea culpable. The North Korean ambassador told reporters that the statement was “a great diplomatic victory.”

Lee Sung-yoon, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said Wednesday that North Korea “has closed the chapter on the Cheonan” since the United Nations statement. “They’re saying, ‘Let’s move on,’ ” he said.

Analysts in Seoul said that North Korea was unlikely to apologize — at least not officially or publicly. But others did not rule it out.

Exercise 4. Compare separate interpretations by the media of the same event (texts A and B) and point out the similarities and differences among them. Develop an understanding of how coverage of an event by the media can vary depending on the type of media and its source.

Text A. Dutch consider burka ban as price for coalition (The Financial Times, October 01, 2010)

By Stanley Pignal in Brussels

The Netherlands became the third European country to look at banning the full Islamic veil, or burka – as the price for obtaining a far-right political party’s backing for a new minority government.

A raft of measures affecting mainly the Dutch migrant population feature in the plans of the Christian Democrat-Liberal coalition government that was agreed earlier this week after four months of negotiations.

The coalition will be the first minority government in Dutch post-war history, and will rely heavily on the support of Geert Wilders, the strident anti-Islamist politician whose Freedom Party (PVV) emerged with 24 out of the 150 seats in the June 9 election.

Though the PVV will not gain any cabinet positions, Mr Wilders has pledged to support the government in exchange for concessions on immigration.

The Netherlands thus joins France and Belgium in moving to ban the burka in public places. The measure will be supplemented by a complete ban on headscarves for police and justice ministry officials, according to the coalition agreement released on Thursday.

Under a hardening of current policy, immigrants who do not take language lessons will lose their right to reside in the Netherlands, and those looking to acquire Dutch nationality will receive temporary citizenship for five years which they can lose if they commit serious crimes.

A tightening of asylum measures – such as an end to the policy of automatically treating nationals of some countries as refugees – also features, which may go against Dutch obligations to the European Union.

Economically, the government has agreed to cut €18bn in spending over the next four years. Public spending cuts will affect the defence budget, grants for university students, the foreign aid budget, healthcare subsidies and arts subsidies; but unemployment benefits will not be changed and the police budget will go up. The number of parliamentarians will be cut by a third, reflecting a general cut-back in the civil service.

The retirement age will be upped one year to 66 years by 2020, half the increase that had featured during the campaign, but which Mr Wilders opposed entirely.

The new government will also look more kindly on nuclear power, and curtail subsidies to the renewable sector.

And in a move that could change the tourism industry particularly in Amsterdam, coffee shops serving up cannabis will become private clubs requiring prior membership, and reserved for Dutch residents. On the other hand, the cigarette-smoking ban in small cafés will be lifted.

The government is expected to be formed next week if a vote of the Christian Democrat party membership on Saturday endorses the tie-up with the Liberals and the separate “support” deal with Mr Wilders.

Mark Rutte, the 43-year-old Liberal leader who is to become prime minister, told reporters: "This cabinet aims to see a stronger Netherlands coming out of the recession… We want to give back the Netherlands to the hard-working citizen.”

But the governing plan was criticised by groups representing immigrants, who disapproved of some of the new measures. Mustafa Ayrance, head of the Turkish Workers Union in the Netherlands, told Dutch newswire ANP the plan “a setback”. Unions also voiced concerns at the austerity measures.

Mr Wilders is expected in court on Monday to face charges of inciting racial hatred, in a trial that will dominate the headlines until the ruling, expected in November .

The 47-year-old branded the Koran as “fascist” in a 2007 newspaper column and later released an anti-Islamic film that drew complaints from civil society groups. He says the charges are politically motivated.

Text B. Dutch far-right party wins pledge on burqa ban (The Guardian, 1 October, 2010)