10A
Wednesdav. October 18, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
North Korean agent shot in South Korea
The Associated Press
IMJIN RIVER, South Korea - Officials say the North Korean agent wore a wet suit over a South Korean military uniform.
That he carried two assault rifles, two pistols, hand grenades, and food and medical kits.
- And that he swam for hours yesterday up the Injin River, just inside South Korea along the most heavily fortified border in the world.
Then he was spotted by two South Korean guards, on special alert as their president traveled overseas. They threw two grenades and
opened fire, and when day broke they found his body near the spot where North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, sparking a three-year war.
"He had no chance," said Maj. Gen. Chung Hwa-un.
But footprints indicated the intruder had not been alone, and South Korean officials began a search for others who may have accompanied him on his mission, which Chung said appeared intended to check South Korean combat readiness.
"It's highly possible that there was more than one infiltrator." Chung
said. "North Korean agents usually operate as a group of two or three."
Military units on roads leading to Seoul were put on alert, and cars traveling to Seoul from the area were stopped and checked. The Defense ministry broadcast appeals for citizens to report anyone suspicious.
South Korea already had increased security in the area out of fear that a new highway to Seoul, 25 miles away, would make North Korean infiltration easier.
Seoul, the capital, with a population of 12 million people, was calm. South Koreans have become blase
after decades of tension between the countries.
South Korea and North Korea never signed a peace treaty at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and they remain technically at war. Their border is the world's most heavily armed, with nearly 2 million troops deployed on both sides.
North Korea did not comment on the incident.
In Washington, Pentagon representative Marine Lt. Col. Jane Schilling said Monday night that she had no information on the report
The clash comes as relations between the two Koreas deteriorate
further because of increased political and military tensions.
U. S. and South Korean military officials have warned that North Korea might provoke border clashes to highlight its demand for replacing the 1953 Korean armistice accord with a peace treaty signed with the United States.
North Korea has been trying to dismantle the Korean armistice to pressure Washington into opening negotiations to establish a new Korean peace system. The United States has rejected the North Korean demand, saying the Koreans themselves must negotiate a new arrangement.
The United States, which fought on Seoul's side in the Korean conflict, keeps 37,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea.
On Dec. 17, 1994, a U.S. Army OH-58C helicopter was shot down after crossing the border. Chief Warrant Officer David Hilenon was killed, and fellow pilot Bobby Hall was held 13 days before being released.
In May 1992, South Korea said its guards killed three North Korean infiltrators in a gunfire in the demilitarized zone between the two countries. The North dismissed the South's report as fabricated.
Israel warns Muslim guerrillas
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israel's Cabinet gave the army freedom of action yesterday against Shiite Muslim guerrillas who killed nine Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested he would not launch a 19-gale scale military strike.
1 Rabin warned that Israel would strike in every place in Lebanon if there was a need for it.
But he pointed out that two deadly ambushes over the past week did not violate a 1993 commitment by Hezbollah guerrillas to stop firing Katyusha rockets into northern Israel so long as Israel did not hit civilian targets in southern Lebanon.
"Since July this year, during all these months, there were no Katyushas in Galilee," Rabin said after a special Cabinet session he convened to decide on a response to Hezbollah. "The fact is that during this period, the understandings were observed by both sides."
Rabin suggested that Israel would change its policy in Lebanon only if Hezbollah fired rockets into northern 1srael.
Hezbollah leads a guerrilla war to evict Israel from the buffer zone in southern Lebanon that it has occupied since 1985 to protect its northern communities from attack. The group is backed by Iran and operates from Syrian-controlled territory in Lebanon.
Israel has accused Syria of using the guerrillas to heat up southern Lebanon in hopes of winning Israeli concessions in deadlocked peace talks.
Rabin repeated the charges against Syria in especially harsh terms yesterday and accused Syria of permitting Hezbollah to freely transfer money, men and arms through Syrian-controlled territory.
"Syria is making a terrible mistake," the prime minister said. "The fact that Syria is behaving as it only makes the negotiations more difficult."
The unusually stern tone of Rabin's words was significant because the moribund talks are at a delicate juncture, with the United States trying to revive them.
Syria denies using Hezbollah for its own aims but refuses to rein in the guerrillas unless Israel withdraws from its border clenclave.
The statement did not give further details about possible military operations but denounced Iran and Syria for supporting Hezbollah.
The Cabinet statement issued after yesterday's
The only minister who appeared to support stronger action against Hezbollah was Police Minister Moshe Shahal, who said Israel could not go back to business as usual.
four-hour session said the ministers had decided to allow Israeli troops the freedom of action necessary in the war against the Hezbollah.
"The lack of response from us would be interpreted by Hezbollah as weakness," Shahal said. "Therefore, there is a need for a strong, fitting response so that the Hezbollah will understand that we will not tolerate the increase of their activity."
Shahal's position reflected the growing demand in Israel for government action against the guerrillas.
"The government's options are limited," the Yediot Ahronot newspaper said yesterday. "But the death of nine ... soldiers last week must signal a change in our policy there. There is a growing feeling that this cannot continue."
Japanese banks look to U.S. for money
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Japanese banking system, once the envy of the world, is now being offered outside aid for its substantial problems. The Federal Reserve, the lender of last resort for U.S. banks, has reached an agreement for technical support of Japanese banks, including an offer to repurchase billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury securities to forestall a possible cash crunch, a source familiar with the arrangement said yesterday.
The agreement was applauded by financial experts, who say publicity about the backup-financial support might lend a sense of stability to Japan's troubled banks.
"I think it is responsible for all of the players to get their ducks lined up and get their positions understood," said Eugene J. Sherman, a banking expert and research director at M.A. Schapiro & Co. Inc., a New York investment bank.
The Federal Reserve's assistance
comes as the Bank of Japan deals with a banking system burdened by $400 billion to $800 billion in bad loans, a severe decline in real estate prices and a lagging stock market, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Seven of Japan's eight major housing lenders are either technically bankrupt or close to it, the report added.
Japanese regulators are trying to resolve the problem by arranging mergers of troubled banks, closing down smaller credit unions and providing loans from the Bank of Japan.
To this end, the new agreement would allow the Bank of Japan to raise cash quickly by having the Federal Reserve repurchase some of Tokyo's $400 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds. Precise details of the agreement were not available, but Sherman said it would probably involve a type of short-term loan known as a repurchase agreement, in which the Treasury bonds would serve as collateral.
in yesterday's editions of The New York Times. Fed and Treasury officials declined comment.
The agreement was first reported
In the late 1980s, the Japanese banking system enjoyed a reputation as the mightiest in the world, dominating the list of the world's largest institutions. Japan's banks gained a major foothold in the United States, accounting for 9.4 percent of all lending in this country in 1994.
While experts say they don't expect any of Japan's 21 large banks to fail, clearly the reputation of Japan's banking system isn't what it used to be.
In August, the International Monetary Fund criticized Japan for adopting a policy of forbearance, or refraining from taking forceful action to resolve problems of smaller banks in 1993.
Last month, members of the Federal Home Loan Bank were warned to review closely short-term credit agreements with major Japanese banks in light of recent downgrades
by bond rating houses.
Also last month, U.S. regulators disclosed $1.1 billion in hidden losses from bond trading at the New York branch of Daiwa Bank. Japanese regulators later were criticized for failing to inform promptly U.S. counterparts about the losses. The new Fed agreement reflects concern about the ability of Japan's regulators to handle their problems.
The Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve System is the central bank for the United States. It was established Dec. 29, 1913. The system controls 12 District Reserve Banks, including one in Kansas City, Mo. The system's primary goal is to maintain the growth of the economy by stabilizing the purchasing power of the dollar. One of the ways the system does this is by selling or purchasing government securities on the open market. Source: The World Almanac
15 survivors found in Roxanne's wake
Storm still pummels Mexican Gulf Coast
The Associated Press
CJIDAD DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Rescue boats pulled 15 survivors out of the Gulf of Mexico yesterday after a barge went down in a hurricane, and the U.S. Coast Guard raised the death toll from the sinking to five.
Roxanne, downgraded yesterday from a hurricane to a tropical storm with winds of 65 mph, continued to torment tens of thousands of coastal residents by pushing the sea far above its normal level. Homes and
belongings were destroyed by the worst flooding there since 1927. The high seas and blustery winds complicated efforts to rescue the survivors of the barge, which sank Sunday night with at least 244 aboard
Army troops and city workers were searching for other possible survivors on flooded beaches northeast of the city.
The new report brings to 234 the number of those rescued from the barge sinking. Varying but unconfirmed reports said 19 to 30 U.S. citizens and one Canadian had been aboard the ship.
Wind gusts, recorded at up to 50 mph on offshore oil platforms, hampered helicopter overflights today, but 30-foot seas were reported to be subsiding.
Outside Best's office Monday night, wind-whipped seawater poured down the streets of Ciudad del Carmen like fast-moving rivers.
Georgina Velazquez multiple hurricane survivor
as Roxanne spun through the area. Octavio Best, chief of navigation for this ravaged port, said 15 survivors were picked off floating wreckage by small boats early yesterday and were taken to the Sara Maria, another barge converted into a makeshift hospital.
"They are not well, but I have had no report of anything serious," Best said.
Best said the survivors were brought to the floating hospital because the wind and waves made docking at shore impossible.
At least five people were killed in the sinking, including one American, U.S. Coast Guard officer Rene Gordon said. She said two U.S. C-130 spotter planes rejoined the search yesterday, and a Coast Guard cutter was en route from Key West, Fla.
Hundreds of houses were flooded — a few nearly to their rooftops — and more than 7,000 people went to emergency shelters set up in schools and other buildings. People stood in water up to
their knees to make calls from a phone system that somehow still worked. There was also electrical power, though some loose cables sizzled as they whipped about in the rain.
In the state capital of Campeche, the sea surged more than two blocks inland before receding, leaving streets clogged with seaweed.
"I have had to wash my house out three times," said Georgina Velazquez, whose house was flooded by Hurricane Opal two weeks ago and by Roxanne's first pass last week.
Roxanne, which doubled back and stung the southern Gulf Coast after killing six people in southern Mexico on its first swing, was slowly headed north-northwest yesterday at 6 mph.
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