SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically
still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53
conflict, in a surprise New Year's broadcast 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 New
Year's editorial published annually in the past in leading state
newspapers.
But North Korea has
offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily
signify a change in tack from a country which vilifies the United States
and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance.
Impoverished North
Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in
December it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit,
drawing international condemnation.
North Korea, which considers the North
and South one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is
banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions
imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.
"An important issue
in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its
reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the
south," Kim said in an address that appeared to be pre-recorded.
"Past records of
inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen
leads to nothing but war," he said, speaking from an undisclosed
location.
The New Year's address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader,
following the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Kim
Jong-il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda
in editorials in state newspapers.
MAY BE LINKED TO CALL FOR AID
Kim's statement
"apparently contains a message that he has an intention to dispel the
current face-off (between the two Koreas), which could eventually be
linked with the North's
call for aid" from the South, said Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at
the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification.
"But such a move does not necessarily mean any substantive change in the North Korean regime's policy towards the South."
There was no immediate reaction from Washington.
Bruce Klingner, a
senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in
Washington, said, "Kim Jong-un's New Year's message was different in
format but not in content." It offered further evidence the young leader
is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, rather than his
father, he said.
While the younger Kim's public diplomacy resonates well
with the North Korean public, "the new North Korean leader's impact on
the outside world is undermined by North Korea's continued provocations
and bombastic rhetoric," Klingner said.
The two Koreas have
seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North
bombed a Southern island in 2010, killing two civilians and two
soldiers.
The sinking of a
South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but
Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign
against its leadership.
Last month, South
Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of
assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee, whom Kim Il-sung had tried
to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.
Park has vowed to
pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build
confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons
ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.
Conspicuously absent from Kim's speech was any mention of North Korea's nuclear arms program.
Post a Comment