Pressure from the U.S. government, in trying to isolate North Korea, has caused Formosa Plastics to put on hold plans to build a power plant in the energy-starved North Korean capital.
Despite official denials, a National Security Council official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed on Sunday that US government officials had repeatedly expressed their concerns to Taiwan's representative office in Washington following a trip by Formosa Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (
DPP Legislator Parris Chang (張旭成) also confirmed that "a high-ranking US official in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs" had expressed the US administration's concerns over the possible investment at last October's APEC meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Last night, Formosa Group business management division vice president Yang Chao-lin (
"Wang thought after the trip that North Korea was not even a good place to take a vacation. Because North Korea is a communist country, the government makes all the money from tourists," he said.
A spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, Judith Mudd-Krijgelmans, declined to comment on the issue.
Accompanied by National Policy Adviser to the President Lee Tsai-fang (李在方), Wang and his wife, Lee Pao-chu (李寶珠), took a direct charter flight from Taipei to Pyongyang on June 12 last year, Lee said.
According to Lee, Wang suggested to North Korean officials that Pyongyang build an electricity plant that could provide at least 2,000MW to help the developing country.
Lee told the Taipei Times that North Korea had sent a delegation, led by "a vice-minister-level official," to discuss details of the project in October.
Lee said that neither he nor Wang knew exactly what level the North Korean government officials held.
"Right after Wang's visit, US officials expressed their concern to our diplomats in Washington, asking why Taiwanese enterprises were interested in investing in North Korea, since previous investments had failed to make any profits in North Korea," the NSC official said.
Another warning came to Parris Chang when a US official concerned with Asia-Pacific affairs, who he refused to identify, told him, "Taiwanese investment in North Korea might turn into assistance for the `axis of evil' and that could damage Taiwan-US bilateral relations."
North Korea, along with Iraq and Iran, were identified by US President George W. Bush as being part of an "axis of evil" that threatened world stability.
According to Lee and an anonymous source familiar with the negotiations between the Formosa Group and North Korea, the thermal power plant would be a build-operate-transfer project in Pyongyang, the ownership of which would be transferred to the North Korean government after 10 years.
Wang's Mai-Liao Power Corporation (麥寮電廠) -- which describes itself as the largest independent power producer in Taiwan -- owns a coal power plant that generates 1,800MW and would be the model for the planned power plant.
According to a Taiwanese source familiar with the negotiations, Formosa Group and North Korea reached a deal to build the power plant in early January.
Under the deal, North Korea would pay for the construction of the plant with coal.
RSS