NEWS - Asia Briefs

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Asia Briefs
                                                                
         Compiled by Jennifer Skordas - Salt Lake City Tribune

             -- North Korea: Pynongyang on Thursday threatened
         to "make Japan pay a high price" for what it described as
         a century of hostilities and repeated its insistence that it
         has the right to test-fire rockets at will. An embassy
         official in Beijing said North Korea wants Japan to
         apologize and make reparations for colonizing Korea
         early this century and killing about 1 million people,
         enslaving millions more and forcing 200,000 Korean
         women to work as sex slaves for the military. If Japan
         does not make amends, North Korea will "give vent to its
         century-old wrath," a government statement said. 
             -- Japan: Lawmakers on Thursday gave police the
         power to use wiretaps against crime suspects for the
         first time, defeating critics who feared it would lead to
         invasions of privacy. The measure, aimed mainly at
         organized crime, was inspired in part by calls for a
         crackdown on subversive groups following the 1995
         nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12. 
             -- Israel: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann's jailhouse
         memoir -- locked away since his execution 37 years ago
         -- will be given to a German research institute for
         publication. Eichmann oversaw the deportation and
         murder of millions of Jews during World War II and
         promoted the use of gas chambers in death camps. In
         the memoir, he tries to portray himself as a mid- 
             level official who only followed Hitler's orders. Israel's
         decision to release the writings as a scholarly document
         apparently is aimed at foiling attempts by neo-Nazis and
         Holocaust deniers to use the text for propaganda. 
             -- Myanmar: The military government said Friday it
         had arrested four people and halted a dissident group's
         plot to spark a general uprising on Sept. 9. The
         government accused the National League for
         Democracy of planning to urge people in this
         numerology-obsessed country to revolt on what they say
         is an auspicious date -- 9/9/99. The government also
         said the party, led by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung
         San Suu Kyi, was cooperating with an exiled
         government, ethnic rebels, drug traffickers, die-hard
         communists and former students. Myanmar was calm
         last Sunday, but exiled dissidents in neighboring
         Thailand soberly marked the anniversary of an uprising
         launched Aug. 8, 1988 -- or 8/8/88 -- that was crushed
         by troops. Thousands died. 
             -- Iran: Under pressure from Turkey, Iran on Friday
         agreed to join with the Turks in launching simultaneous
         military operations against Kurdish rebels. Turkey claims
         the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as PKK, launches
         operations from its bases in Iraq, Iran and Syria. Iran has
         repeatedly denied the claims. Turkey pressured Syria
         into ousting the rebels from its territory with the threat of
         military action in October. 
             -- Iraq: The death rate for small children has doubled
         this decade across most of the country, according to a
         U.N. survey released Thursday that is likely to inflame
         debate over continuing sanctions against Iraq. UNICEF
         officials say a host of factors have influenced the child
         mortality rate, including the sanctions, two wars, a
         collapsed economy and Baghdad's own response.