Activists held a press conference April 25 in Seoul, South Korea, demanding the government withdraw its designation of the country’s Federation of University Student Councils, which favors reunification, as an “enemy-benefiting organization.”

Labourstart reports that 60 North Korean unionists journeyed to the South to join labor activists there for a celebration of International Workers Day, May 1.

The governments went ahead May 2 with negotiations over the exchange of “natural resource” products from the North for raw materials from the South.

Recalling agreements made in February, however, U.S. and Japanese officials pressured North Korean emissaries on May 1 to close down a nuclear reactor. North Korea is holding off until a Macao bank unfreezes $25 million in state funds. In April, South Korean and U.S. planes carried out 180 aerial surveillance sorties, according to North Korean news sources.

(People’s Weekly World, May 12, 2006)