North Korea is radically reviewing its relations with South Korea, changing its policy to treat South Korea as a separate and hostile country and reorganizing its government organization. The photo shows South Korean soldiers guarding the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the North-South military demarcation line. Photographed in February 2023 (2024 Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)
[ソウル ４日 ロイター] – North Korea is radically reviewing its relations with South Korea, changing its policy to treat South Korea as a separate and hostile country and reorganizing its government organization.
Analysts say this is a break with decades of policy and could mean that North Korea’s Foreign Ministry will now be responsible for relations with South Korea. In the event of a future war, this could lead to justifying the use of nuclear weapons against South Korea.
Since the 1950-53 Korean War reached a stalemate and ended in an armistice, both countries have pursued policies that treat each other differently than they do other countries.
Specifically, special agencies and ministries, rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been responsible for inter-Korean relations and have carried out policies with an eye toward the future of peaceful unification of the North and South, resulting in one country, two systems .
However, Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, made clear at the expanded general meeting of the party’s central committee at the end of the year that coexistence between North and South is impossible. The government said it will implement “resolute policy changes” regarding relations with “adversary countries”. He ordered his country’s army to prepare to conquer and occupy South Korea in case of a crisis.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said such policy changes could help North Korea justify using nuclear weapons against South Korea. “If we give up on peaceful unification and redefine South Korea as a hostile country with which we have no diplomatic relations, the contradiction of using nuclear weapons against the same people will also be eliminated,” he said.
However, some experts believe that North Korea’s statement simply reflects the reality of deeply divided countries.
Rachel Min-young Lee of the US Stimson Center said: “In recent years, North Korea has indicated that it will radically change its policy towards South Korea. The expanded general meeting of the Party Central Committee in December 2023 will he confirmed.” Not only that, but we also made it official.”
The extent of the organizational restructuring is unknown. Some analysts say Kim’s comments simply reflect the current situation more accurately and are unlikely to lead to major changes in long-hostile inter-Korean relations.
After periods of heightened tensions over North Korea in the past, such as in 2017, when former US President Donald Trump declared he would confront North Korea with “fire and fury,” there may be a period of détente and dialogue. . Kim and the presidents of the United States and South Korea held talks in 2018 and 2019.
A senior official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said in a written statement on the 3rd that North Korea “has never sincerely promoted coexistence and unification” and believes that Kim’s comments are nothing new.
In North Korea, the United Front Department (UFD) of the Workers’ Party has traditionally been responsible for relations with South Korea, including intelligence and propaganda activities.
However, according to Michael Madden, an expert on North Korean leadership at the Stimson Center, even if inter-Korean dialogue were to resume, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will likely be in charge of relations with South Korea.
Madden said: “His role as a practical advisor on North-South reunification and Korean politics dates back to 2019, when Kim Jong-un visited the Mount Kumgang tourist area.” power would expand.
The fact that Choi, a career diplomat who has had little role in inter-Korean affairs, has led the work of “dismantling and reforming” South Korea-linked organizations suggests that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should absorb these organizations and theirs. This could mean doing more, says Yang Moo-jin, president of North Korea Graduate University in Seoul.
“The UFD and the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which traditionally deal with inter-Korean relations, may be completely disbanded, or at least their roles will be significantly reduced,” the president said, adding that North Korea has not control over the South. He added that he could decide to cut it completely and do business only with the United States.
According to Madden, senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have provided advice on inter-Korean issues in the past, but to his knowledge, there has been no exchange of senior officials between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UFD under the regime of Kim Jong Un.
Regardless of the changes, key UFD intelligence officials are unlikely to be removed from the mainstream, and UFD is likely to retain control over some major propaganda broadcasts and websites, he added.
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2024-01-05 14:24:43
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