[취재파일] North Korea chose “a more difficult frontal breakthrough”… No nuclear abandonment

The 8th Labor Party Congress in North Korea closed yesterday (12th). Since it started on the 5th, it lasted for 8 days. The motto of the party congress put forward by North Korea was’working, fighting, and moving forward’, and it seems that it has evaluated the past over a quite long period of time and made plans for the next five years.

On the closing day of the Labor Party’s general secretary, Kim Jong-un, gave a speech closing the party convention. We talked a lot about it, but there are two main things that interest us.

No nuclear abandonment

First, there is no nuclear abandonment. General Secretary Kim Jong-un emphasized that “we must take as an important task to further strengthen the national defense force in mass,” and emphasized that “we must do everything to develop the strongest military power while strengthening the nuclear war deterrent.”

He didn’t talk much about nuclear weapons, but as General Secretary Kim’s decision to “completely carry out the project evaluation report task of the Party Central Committee” was adopted at the party conference, the will for nuclear weapons was once again confirmed both nationally and nationally. General Secretary Kim Jong-un announced plans to improve various types of nuclear capabilities, including the development of solid fuel ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), nuclear preemptive strike capability against the United States, and design of nuclear submarines in the’Party Central Committee Project Evaluation Report’.

A more difficult frontal breakthrough

The second point to note is that in this context, North Korea has chosen a more difficult frontal breakthrough.

General Secretary Kim Jong-un emphasized the importance of economic construction, saying, “Socialist economic construction is the most important revolutionary task for which we (North Korea) should concentrate all our power today.” As we break through, we must open a new path for advancement.” “Even if the hostile forces are trying to block our (North Korea) path more madly,” he said, “to achieve a revolutionary advance by attaining a new victory in the cause of socialism, we must prepare for a more difficult head-on breakthrough.”

The fact that Secretary General Kim emphasized the importance of economic construction, but emphasized self-reliance rather than cooperation with the outside, revealed his determination not to give up nuclear weapons for the sake of the economy. This is because it is difficult to obtain cooperation from the outside world while continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. Some expectations that “North Korea will pursue denuclearization because it wants to build an economy” needs to be revised.

Kim Yeo-jung, It seems that the role of the South Korean division will continue

Another part to be noted is Kim Yeo-jung’s discourse that came out with the closing report of the party conference. Kim Yeo-jeong said that South Korea is “expressing hostile alertness,” aiming at the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea watching the situation in North Korea’s late-night fever. I accused him. In addition, he criticized South Korea as “a bizarre tribe that is difficult to understand” or “special nerds” and insisted that “it must be calculated afterwards”.

At this party meeting, he was eliminated as a candidate for the Political Bureau, and the name of the discourse appears to have been demoted to a level because it was not the existing’first vice-president’, but’deputy-director’. Since Kim Yeo-jeong is in a special position as Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, it is expected that he will continue to play the role of a substantial number two regardless of his position.

*The external author’s column may not match the editorial direction of this magazine.