So far we have been forced to read tea leaves with the new NorthKorean Leader as he consolidates control and retires any opposition. This represents the first pronouncement that can be accepted as aninvitation to rationalize the situation and should be followed up.
Unless he is blind and stupid, not a zero risk, the way forward isobvious. Resolving the confrontation and standing down is a reallygood place to begin. After all that, the next order of business isto establish protocols that groom North Korea for outright absorptioninto a Greater Korea.
It is a decadal enterprise that will see radical reform for the NorthKoreans. I expect them to track the German experience. I think thatthe odds are now in favor of just this been undertaken. We can hope.
North Koreanleader, in rare address, seeks end to confrontation with South
By Jack Kim |
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/north-korean-leader-rare-address-seeks-end-confrontation-024100592.html
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontationbetween the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of apeace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year'sbroadcast on state media.
The address by Kim,who took power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il,died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting NewYear's editorial published annually in the past in leading statenewspapers.
But North Korea hasoffered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarilysignify a change in tack from a country which vilifies the UnitedStates and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance.
Impoverished NorthKorea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocketin December it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite inorbit, drawing international condemnation.
North Korea, whichconsiders the North and South one country, the Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nucleartechnology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009nuclear weapons tests.
"An importantissue in putting an end to the division of the country and achievingits reunification is to remove confrontation between the north andthe south," Kim said in an address that appeared to bepre-recorded.
"Past records ofinter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellowcountrymen leads to nothing but war," he said, speaking from anundisclosed location.
The New Year's addresswas the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader, following thedeath of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Kim Jong-il rarelyspoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda ineditorials in state newspapers.
MAY BE LINKED TO CALLFOR AID
Kim's statement"apparently contains a message that he has an intention todispel the current face-off (between the two Koreas), which couldeventually be linked with the North's call for aid" from theSouth, said Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at the state-fundedKorea Institute for National Unification.
"But such a movedoes not necessarily mean any substantive change in the North Koreanregime's policy towards the South."
There was no immediatereaction from Washington.
Bruce Klingner, asenior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation inWashington, said, "Kim Jong-un's New Year's message wasdifferent in format but not in content." It offered furtherevidence the young leader is following in the footsteps of hisgrandfather, rather than his father, he said.
While the youngerKim's public diplomacy resonates well with the North Korean public,"the new North Korean leader's impact on the outside world isundermined by North Korea's continued provocations and bombasticrhetoric," Klingner said.
The two Koreas haveseen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the Northbombed a Southern island in 2010, killing two civilians and twosoldiers.
The sinking of a SouthKorean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North butPyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaignagainst its leadership.
Last month, SouthKorea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter ofassassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee, whom Kim Il-sung hadtried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.
Park has vowed topursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to buildconfidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclearweapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.
Conspicuously absentfrom Kim's speech was any mention of North Korea's nuclear armsprogram.
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