Kim Jong Un took a cautiously optimistic approach to North-South détente during his annual New Year’s message Friday, calling for the opening of a “new era of independent unification”.
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Hart also told Han that should Pyongyang’s Ri and Seoul’s Lim meet and if the atmosphere in U.S.-North Korea relations remained positive, it was likely that the U.S. government would consider positively sending him and National Security Council Korea director Sydney Seiler to NY for a subsequent meeting with Ri.
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Kim Yang Gon was a close associate of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, who rules the country with an iron fist and controls the output of its shackled media. “But if invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and will sternly answer with a merciless, holy war of justice”, Kim said, albeit devoting a much greater portion of his address to criticism of Seoul’s approach to inter-Korean talks and of its alliance with the US.
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He also condemned the joint military exercises held each year by South Korea and the United States.
Kim devoted much of the almost 30-minute speech to his preparedness to engage in talks with South Korea for their reunification and his resolve to raise living standards for North Korean citizens, such as by eliminating power shortages as much as possible.
But tension surged after two South Korean soldiers were killed in an explosion on the border last August.
However, some North Korea analysts in Seoul are raising suspicions that Kim’s death might have been planned. He had most recently negotiated with senior South Korean officials in August to defuse a crisis caused by a North Korean incursion into the demilitarized zone and exchange of artillery fire.
Kim did not mention North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the way North Korean leaders handled the death leaves little room for foul play. That said, other North Korean elites may now be more wary of getting into their cars.
But Kim also insisted he would pursue “unification” and added: “We will continue to work patiently to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional stability”. The two sides haven’t met since early last month, when talks ended without a deal.
CBS reports that there had been no signs of factional tensions involving Kim Yang Gon within the North Korean administration prior to his death.
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Friday’s speech kicked off a year that will see the first congress of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party to be convened for 35 years – another rare opportunity to signal any significant policy shifts or reshuffle the party leadership.
