South Korea Announces Ten More Nuclear Plants by 2030

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—At least ten more nuclear power plants will be built in South Korea by 2030, to generate up to 41% of domestic electricity demand. South Korea operates 20 nuclear power plants which produce 17.72 million kilowatts of power, or 26% of current national electricity demand.

The Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy unveiled these measures today, along with some plans for "alternative energy" to boost energy self-reliance and diversify energy sources, due to difficulty securing a stable supply of crude oil and other fossil fuels, amid tight global supply and soaring prices.

New York Times' Kristoff Threatens China

Aug. 7 (EIRNS)—Under the false pretense of offering Beijing an "Olive Branch from the Dalai Lama," columnist Nicholas Kristoff threatens the Chinese, in an op-ed in the New York Times, that it will be subjected to violence and terrorism unless the government accepts the existence of "Greater Tibet" (which covers more than one-fourth of China!) as an autonomous zone; agrees that no non-Tibetans shall be allowed to enter the region except on a temporary basis; and allows unrestricted entry of youth into monastery training in Tibet, rather than attending public schools.

Kristoff has been holding meetings with the Dalai Lama, and reports that the Nazi-loving monk authorized him to speak on his behalf, on these issues.

South Korea Hit with Capital Flight, Faces September Disaster

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—South Korea is being warned of a severe liquidity crisis in September, as foreign investors are frantically pulling money out of Korean stocks and bonds. Foreigners sold about $6.3 billion in stock in July alone, and another $2.7 billion in bonds. About $8.6 billion in foreign-held bonds are due to expire in September, which could provoke a run, just as Korean firms are trying to raise dollar loans to meet the hyperinflationary prices on fuel, food, and other commodities.

Foreign exchange reserves plunged $10.6 billion last month, the biggest monthly fall in the country's history. Most of the money is believed to have been used to defend the Korean won against the dollar.

Philippines in Turmoil Over 'Peace' Deal with Moros

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—The Philippines government of President Gloria Arroyo appears to be provoking a crisis between Muslims and Christians in the southern province of Mindanao, in order to force a Constitutional Convention, to change the Presidential system (with checks and balances against the Executive) to a parliamentary dictatorship. President Arroyo and her controller, Fidel Ramos (who, in turn, is run by George Shultz), have been trying for over ten years to dump the American-style Presidential system, with two intentions: to stop the pesky Senate from using its constitutional power to check the Executive's moves toward economic dictatorship and the use of police-state methods; and second, to eliminate constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of mines and businesses. The Senate has thus far thwarted every effort to eliminate it in favor of British-style "parliamentarianism," or to sell out the country to speculators.

The agreement was secret and was not released to the Congress or the press, but an unofficial copy was leaked, showing that the government was practically granting the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) an independent state in part of Mindanao.

Philippines Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Committee on Revision of Codes and Laws, blew the whistle on this scheme, while a group of officials in Mindanao who oppose the extent of the deal with the MILF held a 10,000-strong demonstration, and took it to the Supreme Court, winning a Temporary Restraining Order on Aug. 4 against the signing of the deal.

SAARC Summit: Make South Asia 'The Granary of the World'

Aug. 4 (EIRNS)—The leaders of the eight member-nations of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), issued a "SAARC Statement on Food Security" yesterday, at the conclusion of the two-day 15th SAARC summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka. SAARC consists of Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and Afghanistan. They represent 1.5 billion people.

At the end of July, nations of the Caribbean and of West Africa also met, laying plans for joint action on agriculture and food security. These efforts represent both the natural resort to multi-nation cooperation among neighbors, and also rearguard food defense measures, given the refusal of global institutions to take or allow any appropriate emergency measures on the collapsing world economy and food system, including the United Nations, World Food Program, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank, and others.

A resolution for the world food and economic breakdown crisis to be taken up at the UN General Assembly in September, is now in worldwide circulation, issued July 26 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, at a meeting in Germany.

The SAARC statement from Colombo said: "We, the Heads of State or Government, participating in the Fifteenth SAARC Summit held in Colombo on 2/3 August 2008, affirm our resolve to ensure region-wide food security and make South Asia, once again, the granary of the world.

"In view of the emerging global situation of reduced food availability and worldwide rise in food prices, we direct that an Extraordinary Meeting of the Agriculture Ministers of the SAARC Member States be convened in New Delhi, India in November 2008, to evolve and implement a people-centred, short- to medium-term regional strategy, and collaborative projects that would, among others, lead to: increase in food production; investment in agriculture and agro-based industries; agriculture research and prevention of soil health degradation; development and sharing of agricultural technologies; sharing of best practices in procurement and distribution; and management of the climatic and disease-related risks in agriculture."

China Under Attack from British-Aided Terrorists

Aug. 4 (EIRNS)—British-aided terrorists have revved up the campaign to undermine the People's Republic of China, as identified by EIR ("Uighurs: Britain's Double-Edged Razor To Cut Up China" April 11, 2008). On Aug. 4, sixteen border police guards of China's Ministry of Public Security in near Kashgar, Xinjiang province, were killed and 16 others injured, when two unidentified terrorists drove a truck up to the barracks compound, jumped out, and threw hand-grenades at a group of police guards. The terrorists then took out knives and attacked some of the injured policemen. Fourteen police died on the spot and two others succumbed to their injuries subsequently.

A leading Indian intelligence analyst said the attacked border post in Kashgar (Kashi in Chinese) was near the border with Tajikistan. The two terrorists are suspected to have infiltrated into the area from Tajikistan. The Islamic Movement of East Turkistan (IMET), which is the main organization of the anti-Beijing Uighurs, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), another Uzbek-led organization, and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) of Pakistan, had operated in the bordering areas of Tajikistan in the past. Before 9/11, the HUJI had a training camp in Tajikistan for training recruits from Xinjiang and the Central Asian Republics.

The Uighurs are a potent edge of London's razor operating from the undefined borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the rocky terrain of Central Asia. The head of various parts of this outfit is Hizb ut-Tehrir, which has a strong organizational presence in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bradford, England.

While the IMU openly thrives on violence, the Hizb ut-Tehrir, banned in parts of Europe and in many Muslim countries, is promoted by the United Kingdom as peaceful. But the IMU and the Hizb ut-Tehrir actually work hand in hand. Most of the IMU recruits are from the Hizb ut-Tehrir, according to Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on world terrorist outfits.

'Ground Realities' in Bangladesh Show Gore Is All Wet

Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—New data shows that Bangladesh's landmass is increasing, contradicting forecasts by pseudo-scientists, such as Al Gore, that the South Asian nation will be under the waves by the end of the century, scientists from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) said. They have studied 32 years of satellite images and report that Bangladesh's landmass has increased by eight square miles annually.

Influenced by the Gore hoax, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that impoverished Bangladesh, crisscrossed by more than 200 rivers, will lose 17% of its land by 2050 because of rising sea levels due to global warming. The panel also predicted that 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and that the country will lose some 30% of its food production.

However, the "ground realities" are quite different, says Maminul Haque Sarker, head of the department at the government-owned center that looks at boundary changes. Sarker said "satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier than that show some 1,000 square kilometers (400 square miles) of land have risen from the sea."

Mahfuzur Rahman, head of the Bangladesh Water Development Board's Coastal Study and Survey Department, has also been analyzing the buildup of land on the coast. "For almost a decade we have heard experts saying Bangladesh will be under water, but so far our data has shown nothing like this," he said. "Natural accretion has been going on here for hundreds of years along the estuaries, and all our models show it will go on for decades or centuries into the future."