North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attended a concert yesterday celebrating the 57th anniversary of the Korean War as the two main adversaries from that conflict conducted war drills off his country’s eastern coast.

The State Merited Chorus performed numbers such as “Our General is the Best” and “My Song in the Trench,” state-run Korean Central News Agency reported today. The audience gave “enthusiastic cheers” to Kim, the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, who “heartily congratulated them on the victory” in the Fatherland Liberation War.

As Kim took part in celebrations to mark the cease-fire that ended open hostility on the Korean peninsula, U.S. and South Korean forces were putting on a display of military might that included anti-submarine maneuvers intended as a deterrent to the North.

The four-day drills, which end today, are being held after a South Korean-led investigation team in May blamed North Korea for torpedoing the South’s warship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.

The three-year Korean War ended in a cease-fire after China’s entry pushed back the U.S. and United Nations forces. South Korea remains technically at war with the North, with the two sides separated by one of the world’s most-fortified borders.

This is the third try to pass the law on Casino through Ikh Khural. Two other drafts were rejected by the previous Parliament.

“Neighboring regions of neighboring countries don’t have any casinos or gambling centers, which allows such businesses to flourish in Mongolia,” deputies said to Business Mongolia. Law initiators believe that it will contribute to the Mongolian economy and revenue.

According to the draft document, one percent of casino income will be collected into the “Good Will” Foundation, a social welfare fund. The casino is going to be open only for foreigners and the government of Mongolia will own certain part of its asset.

The government of the country had signed a contract four years ago that will put a U.S. real-estate company, Winwheel Bullion, in charge of building a casino complex with hotels, shopping malls, banks and a modern airport to bring visitors across the vast distances needed to reach it. Neither the company nor the Mongolian side have provided any information about financial arrangements for the zone.

The government first awarded a contract to develop Zamyn Uud to a British Virgin Islands-registered company called Western Paradise, promising tax breaks and other incentives, but that deal fell through.

Zamyn-Uud FTZ is 900 hectares in size and located three kilometers east of the main town and three kilometers north of Erenhot city (usually shortened into Eriyen, Ereen or Erlian), Inner Mongolia, China.

A tiny town and railway depot, Zamyn Uud is about 350 miles northwest of Beijing, has a population of 10.000 inhabitants and is very much dependent upon the commercial activity generated by the neighboring Chinese city Erenhot.

The major employer in Zamyn-Uud is the Government of Mongolia, which employs approximately 700 people to manage and operate the Mongolian Railway. In this location, the railway is very important as it handles goods and products being transported from Russia to China (around 10 million tons per year), facilitates direct cross-border trade with China, and has a container loading and unloading facility (twenty wagons a day) to overcome the difference in rail gauge of the Mongolian and Chinese railway systems. Handling capacity of the transshipment facility is 60-80 wagons a day.

The city of Erenhot is experiencing fast economic growth. Its current population is estimated at almost two -hundred thousand residents while the per capita GDP of the city was at 14,000 Yuan in 2009.

Between Mongolia and China there presently is only one international port of entry operating on a permanent basis and nine bilateral ports of entry operating on a seasonal basis. Most prominent among these is the “Zamiin-Uud – Erenhot,” international port.Nine others, including “Bulgan” port in the province of Khobdo, “Gashuunsukhait” port in the province of South Gobi, and “Shiveekhuren,” also in South Gobi, are very crowded during the short season in which they operate.

According to the state’s statistic data 508.821 of Mongolian citizens traveled through the various ports of entry to Russia and China in 2000, but the majority – 266.221 passing through Zamyn Uud –Erenhot.

The agreement was signed in Vientiane on March 22 by the Laotian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sitaheng Rasphone and T. Badamjunai, the Mongolian Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

“We are interested in trading agricultural and forestry products with Laos”, said Mongolian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mr. Badamjunia during his official visit to the country. He told local media, “this cooperation would increase relations between the two countries in the future.”

Under the agreement, the two sides agreed to formulate joint collaborative projects involving both the public and private agricultural sectors of the two countries and to set up joint venture companies in rice production and processing, said the newspaper.

According to signed agreement, Laos would export rice and sugar to Mongolia, as well as invest in wood processing and livestock breeding exchanges.

Laos contains more than 800.000 hectares of rice fields and produced about three million tones of rice last year, a figure which is set to rise to 3.3 million tons this year, said President of the Lao-Agro Processing Association, Mr Phouvong Korasack.

The country has sufficient rice for domestic consumption and also exports the crop to Vietnam and Thailand. Last year the country exported around 10.000 tones of sugar to Europe, said Mr Phouvong. The Laotian government plans to increase production of rice and sugar to ensure domestic supply is met and that exports can be increased.

Mongolia currently imports about 25.000 tons of sugar and 30.000 tons of rice a year, primarily from Vietnam and China.

On the basis of the cooperation agreement, Laos will consider a number of proposals by Mongolia including the transferring agricultural land use rights of 10.000 hectares in Laos to Mongolian companies to produce rice and other crops, the development of sheep farming in Laos and the establishment of a Mongolian agriculture cooperation center in Laos.

By Edith Balazs

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said countries in central and eastern Europe should join together and create a “triangle” of supply points for natural gas to reduce dependence on fuel from Russia.

“I’m proposing that countries in the region set up a gas supply triangle to boost the diversity and security,” Bajnai said at an energy summit in Budapest today, which was attended by heads of government from countries in the region. “We need to increase the number of independent suppliers.”

Countries in the region, dependent on Russian gas, have repeatedly suffered from fuel shortages because of pricing disputes between Russia and Ukraine, a transit country. Hungary gets about 80 percent of its gas from Russia and supports the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline aimed at bringing Caspian gas to Europe.

Nabucco would be the eastern tip of a triangle, which would include a planned liquefied natural-gas terminal in Poland in the north and an LNG terminal in Krk, Croatia, in the south, Bajnai said. The plan would secure supply of gas transported in the Baltic and Adriatic seas, he said.

“Our aim is to create a critical mass that can represent its interest more efficiently, a critical mass that simply can’t be passed by or overlooked,” Bajnai said.

What Dalai Lama has said and done in the past decades have fully shown that he is not a pure religious figure, but a political figure in exile who’s long engaged in activities to split China and undermine ethnic unity in China under the cover of religion. While claiming that his visits to foreign countries are aimed at spreading religious teachings, he has never stopped defaming the Chinese Government, selling “Tibet independence” proposals and undermining relations between China and other countries. This is well reflected in his remarks during his current visit, including those he made on CNN’s Larry King Live.

In addition, the talks between Dalai’s private representatives and the Chinese Government at the end of January have demonstrated once again that the Dalai group is still clinging to their separatist propositions, including the so-called “greater Tibet region” and “meaningful autonomy”, whose ultimate goal is to separate a quarter of Chinese territory from China. This is something that no sovereign country can allow to occur.

As Dalai Lama claimed on Larry King Live, he regards a foreign country other than China or its Tibetan Autonomous Region as his “home”, and Tibet is “not much concern” to him. Such a political figure is in no way qualified to represent the Tibetan people as self-claimed by him.

Tibet has never been a country in history, but an inalienable part of China from ancient times. Dalai Lama’s repeated calling Tibet a “country” explains nothing but his true mind of splitting Tibet from China. We urge the U.S. side earnestly abide by the U.S. Government’s committment of recognizing Tibet as part of China and not supporting “Tibet independence”, take measures to undo the damages caused by Dalai’s visit, stop providing convenience or platform for Dalai and pro-Tibet independence forces, take concret actions to maintain the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations. We sincerely hope American people see through Dalai’s true nature as a separatist and his ulterior motive of sabotaging China-U.S. relations, understand and support China’s just positions on Tibet-related issues.

“The United States has kept providing Taiwan with defensive weapons according to the Taiwan Relations Act, enabling Taiwan to be more confident in pressing for reconciliation with the Chinese mainland,” Minister Kao said.

“In the future, Taiwan will continue purchasing more weaponry from the United States… so as to build a smaller and leaner deterrent force.”

The US$6.8 billion arms sale between the U.S. and Taiwan in January infuriated Chinese officials who accused America of using “cold war logic.”

Speaking at a security conference in Munich last week, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that the deal violated standards in international relations and provoked officials in Beijing.

According to the AFP, Taiwan’s Premier Wu Den-yih dismissed Yang’s allegations, saying Beijing’s continued missile buildup along the mainland coastline facing the island had prompted Taiwan to seek more self-defensive weaponry.

“It’s just like two people trying for reconciliation. If one of them sticks a gun in his waist, it would be weird, don’t you think so,” Wu said in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix satellite television Saturday.

“The people of Taiwan would feel better if China can withdraw its missiles…,” he said.

That’s not going to happen.

SEOUL (Reuters) – A senior Chinese envoy was in North Korea to prod the reclusive state back to stalled nuclear talks while the South sent a team across the border on Monday for talks to restart tourism projects halted due to political wrangling.

The North will also host the U.N.’s top political envoy later this week, with analysts saying this engagement may bode well for the dormant six-way disarmament-for-aid talks and could lead to Pyongyang reducing the security threat it poses to the region.

The destitute North is feeling pressure to return to the nuclear talks, where it can win aid to prop up its broken economy, due to U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test in May 2009 and a botched currency revaluation that sparked inflation and rare civil unrest.

Analysts said there is a chance the North could launch military moves if the talks do not go well. Market players have said this would dampen sentiment and serve as a reminder of the dangers of investing in the troubled peninsula.

Chinese Communist Party international affairs chief Wang Jiarui flew to North Korea at the weekend. Wang met Kim Jong-Il last year, and received a denuclearization pledge from the North Korean leader.

Wang met senior officials other than Kim at the weekend. He is expected to stay four days and have discussions with Kim, the South’s Yonhap news agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

China, the destitute North’s biggest benefactor, is seen as having the most influence on the reclusive state. Kim Jong-il told the Chinese premier in October he could return to the nuclear talks if conditions were right.

In a move seen as bettering the mood with the United States, the North’s most important dialogue partner in the nuclear talks that also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, Pyongyang at the weekend released a U.S. missionary it had held since late December for illegally entering the country.

North Korea is recent weeks has been reaching out to South Korea, which once was a major aid donor, but also threatening its neighbor and U.S. military ally by firing artillery near its neighbor on the troubled peninsula.

Analysts said the North wants to underscore the threat it poses to North Asia, which is responsible for one-sixth of the global economy, in a ploy to increase its bargaining leverage.

The Koreas were set to begin talks on joint tourism projects in the North run by an affiliate of the South’s Hyundai group.

The tours, suspended for more than a year, once earned the North’s leaders tens of millions of dollars a year and Kim Jong-il has appealed to have them restarted.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who took office two years ago, ended unconditional handouts to the North and linked aid to progress his neighbor makes in reducing the military threat it poses to North Asia.

The air force will buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters, defense ministry spokesman Martin Yu said without offering details.

China has blasted the United States over a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan, saying it would place sanctions on U.S. firms that sell weapons to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province of China.

Taiwan will sign a $111 million deal in the next few days to buy up to 20 choppers from Eurocopter, the Defense News reported. Eurocopter is a subsidiary under German-based EADS.

“What is equally odd about the contract award is China has remained silent on the issue after it threatened to sanction U.S. companies selling arms to Taiwan and occurs at the same time European leaders have been pushing for a lifting of arms exports to China,” Defense News said.

The EC-225 is considered a dedicated search and rescue craft rather than a combat helicopter.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

Taiwan seeks advanced foreign-made weapons to update its military, which lags China in the balance of power.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration notified Congress a week ago of its first proposed arms sales to Taiwan including Black Hawk utility helicopters, Patriot “Advanced Capability-3″ anti-missile missiles, and command-and-control technology.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship on Wednesday with an unknown number of crew on board, the European Union Naval Force said.

The MV Rim was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition, said Cmdr. Anders Kallin of the EU Naval Force.

The MV Rim has not had any communication with maritime authorities, but Kallin said an American warship, the USS Porter, and a helicopter from American warship USS Farragut confirmed the seizure of the ship to the EU.

The 4,800-ton ship is owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya. It is carrying unknown cargo and the number and nationalities of the crew are not known. The seized ship was heading toward the Somali coast and warships were monitoring the situation, the EU Naval Force said. The MV Rim is the third ship seized by Somali pirates this year. Its crew will join more than 180 sailors being held hostage along the Somali coast.

Most Somalis are impoverished and many have suffered from almost two decades of fighting. The anarchic Horn of Africa nation is the perfect pirate base because the weak U.N.-backed government is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to patrol its shores or go after pirates on land.

The multimillion dollar ransoms that pirates command are one of the few remaining ways for Somalis to make money. Experts say the problems will only get worse unless the security situation on land improves.

They have done so by striking at some of the country’s most sensitive topics over the last month, namely: censorship, Taiwan, and the Dalai Lama.

It started with Google’s announcement that it would be leaving the Chinese market after suffering a series of sophisticated cyber attacks originating in China in addition to claiming that censoring their search results went against the company motto, “Don’t be evil.”

Google’s announcement came a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a private dinner with some of America’s top executives, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Coincidence?

The Google accusations were the perfect preamble for Mrs. Clinton’s speech the next week, which harshly criticized China’s Internet policy.

“Censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere. And in America, American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand,” Clinton said during her speech. “This lopsided access to information increases both the likelihood of conflict and the probability that small disagreements could escalate.”

Anyone living in China will know that “lopsided access to information” would be an understatement. Just read the front page of China Daily or Xinhua News.

Then, last Friday, all of China was in a fury over U.S. plans to approve and ship US$6.8 billion worth of arms to Taiwan.

Beijing, in response, has said it will suspend military exchanges between the two countries, review cooperation on key issues, and may enact embargoes against the U.S. companies involved.

While the nature of the deal was bound to make people in China upset, given the sensitivity of Mainlanders to the “One-China” ideology, it was largely ignored that the arms deal was consistent with U.S. foreign policy (Taiwan Relations Act) and primarily included defensive weapons and technology.

Let’s not forget that China has more than one thousand missiles aimed across the Taiwan Strait and has made it clear that they would use military force to bring the island under its control if Taiwan ever moved towards formal independence.

Here’s the Taiwan arms deal breakdown according to the Defense Security Co-operation Agency:

PROPOSED ARMS SALE
114 Patriot missiles ($2.81bn)
60 Black Hawk helicopters ($3.1bn)
Communication equipment ($340m)
2 Osprey mine-hunting ships ($105m)
12 Harpoon missiles ($37m)

Finally, U.S. officials have signaled this week that President Obama will likely be meeting with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Although President Obama is not doing anything new by dealing with Taiwan or meeting with the Dalai Lama, he is sending a message that if Beijing wants the U.S. to operate with Chinese interests in mind, China will have to reciprocate.

Regardless of the fallout that may come of these moves in Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao’s anticipated visit to the United States in April will be interesting to watch.