Jimmy Carter and other ex-leaders to travel to N. Korea

SEOUL - former President Jimmy Carter was in North Korea on Tuesday for talks to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula to get warring.

Remain the so-called six talks on the Denuclearization of North Korea in the balance, and Mr.. Carter said official dialogue with the North "appears at a standstill."

Mr. Carter and three former leaders from Europe arrived in Beijing on Sunday. Travel with Mr. Carter, the former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari were; Gro Harlem Brundtland, a past Secretary of State; and the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. The four are members of the elders, an independent group of world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela.

"It is clearly a great deal of distrust between North and South Korea," said Mr Ahtisaari. "But the use is too high to the standoff continue to permit."

The oldest group had hoped meetings with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, although Mr. Carter said Monday that such a meeting still had not established.

It was also unclear whether Mr.. Carter, an American man release by North Korea on unspecified charges since November in prison, would press North Korean officials.

On Thursday, following meetings in Pyongyang, is the oldest group in the South Korean capital Seoul travel.

Earlier this month, an American man said the North Korean Government already "his crime had allowed." Sources in the United States, which name it, said the man was a Korean American businessman in his sixties from Orange County, California young-Su Jun, the South Korean News Agency, Yonhap, citing.

Yonhap said Mr Jun had been taken into custody in connection with illegal religious activities in the North.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mark toner, confirmed that an American was kept from the North, but he and other officials United States declined to name the prisoner and offers no personal details, citing privacy rules. The United States urges North Korea to the Americans "for humanitarian reasons."

The State Department has said, Mr. Carter's trip was a private trip and he was not as a delegate for American Act.

But Mr.. Carter on liberation of jailed Americans in the past been successful. He made a private trip to Pyongyang in August last year after the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 31, of Boston, win, who was convicted of illegally in North Korea.

In April 2010 to eight years, Mr Gomes had been sentenced to forced labour and was fined $700,000. Mr Gomes said the Carter Center amnesty were been granted by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

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The Australia is designed to Accord on trade with the Korea of the South, says Gillard

April 23, 2011, 11: 40 am EDT by James Paton

April 24 (Bloomberg) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that she plans to discuss free trade tomorrow with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and is satisfied that the two nations will complement an agreement.

"I am committed to building relationships of the Australia with the Korea," Gillard said in a speech made yesterday in Seoul, according to a copy of the address on the website of the Prime Minister. "It's full of promises and potential partnership."Korea of the South is the fourth trading partner of the Australia, a nation with a "very complementary" economy and a consumer of its natural gas liquefied, said Gillard. Korea Gas Corp. is a partner in the Gladstone LNG 16 billion project in the State of Queensland led by Santos Ltd., producer of oil third in Australia, while Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. became "household names"She said. "" Gillard, our commercial links are intense and highly complementary ", said in his speech. "Highlights of the Australia raw materials, energy and services completed the forces of the Korea in the production of mass and heavy industry."Australia will contribute a 10 million ($10.7 million) to Global Green growth Institute Korea in the South, created by the Government to support the development of environmental policies in the developing countries, according to Gillard.Australia and the Japan agreed to work more closely on the development of clean energy sourcesAfter the earthquake on March 11 and the nuclear crisis and reaffirmed a commitment to introduce a free trade agreement, Gillard said on 22 April in Tokyo.

-Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney jpaton4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at the ptighe@bloomberg.net

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Low rate of birth threat economy of South Korea, Governor Kim said

April 20, 2011, 7: 18 pm EDT by Belinda Cao

April 21 (Bloomberg) — the greatest threat to the economic health of the Korea of the South is not North Korean aggression or Chinese competition, Kim Moon-Soo, Governor of the largest province of the country and a potential candidate. According to the low fertility rate of the country.

Korea of the South have to face "a very big obstacle to our growth" that families have more babies, Governor of Gyeonggi Kim said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The Government must be "more active" in providing childcare and the lowering of the costs of the education of families, he said.Women with careers, which tend to "not to marry and not step to have children", have added to this "difficult" question, said Kim, the candidate favored most third in the Grand National Party for the next presidential electiona Realmeter survey this month. The Gyeonggi province has implemented incentives for encouraging Government employees have more children, said Kim.Taux of fertility of the Korea of the South was 1.21 per woman in the past five years - the fourth, lowest in the world, according to data from the Organization of Nations United. economy fourth Asia seeks more trade cooperation with the United States such as increased competition from China, which has lower labor costs and land prices, it faces. Kim urged the United States to ratify the free trade agreement between the two countries, adding to the military alliance between the nations which is "essential criticism" because of the China.Increasing TradeChina of China, exceeding Japan last year than the world of the second - most big economyis a competitor, but also a partner in trade closely with the Korea of the South, even though it is always on the Korea of North on military affairs, Kim said. The two countries on the Korean peninsula remains technically at war since the end of their 1950-53 conflict in a ceasefire, which was never replaced by a peace treaty. "If there is not in China, the alliance U.S. - Korea is not essential,"he says.Groups the Korea anti-Americans may attempt to stimulate the animosity against the United States, said Kim, noting that the trade agreement awaiting ratification has been completed during the administration of President George w. Bush, with some provisions renegotiated in December.A ex aequo with the United States firm security is also important for South Korea in relations with the Korea of the NordKim said. "" We must try to continue our dialogue and cooperation with the Korea of the North, but it must be based on a strong military alliance "with the United States, he said.Korea in the South refused to engage in dialogue with the Korea of the North, until the Government in Pyongyang apologize for the attacks of last year that killed 50 South Koreans, which hamper international negotiations on the weapons of the Korea of the Nord.Se program moving semiconductor and electronics KoreaSome Japanese makers, including Canon Inc., are considering relocation of plants in the Gyeonggi province to take advantage of the market in full growth of the Korea for these products, a trend that began after the earthquake in the Japan last month, according to Kim. Based at San Diego Qualcomm Inc., world's largest producer of mobile phone chips, also expand its investment in the country, he said.Kim, who said he was jailed twice while in militant anti-Government, was declared after seeing the failure in communism in the 1990s, he became a conservative after the fall of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union. He said that his first visit in 1994 to United States, where he saw "impressive values" of the rights of man even in poor neighbourhoods, such as Harlem the city of New York, also helped to change his point of view.When asked to confirm his plans to run for President, Kim, 59, said, "Let's wait and see"- and noted that there is 20 months before the election.

-Editors: Steven Komarow, Leslie Hoffecker

To contact the reporter on this story: Belinda Cao in New York at the lcao4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Fireman at kfireman1@bloomberg.net

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