Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
No change in NK stance of holding onto nukes: Thae Yong-ho
Former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho speaks during a debate session on prospects of affairs on the Korean Peninsula at the National Assembly, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
The North Korean leader's stance remains the same in that the regime will keep its nuclear program, former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho said about Kim Jong-un's New Year address.
“Reading the context of this year's address, we can tell there has not been the slightest change in Kim's stance of keeping hold of nuclear weapons,” he said at a debate session on prospects of affairs on the Korean Peninsula, hosted by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party's (LKP) Oh Se-hoon, Wednesday.
Kim stated in his address a day earlier that it is the stance of the regime to work toward complete denuclearization.
Based on the North Korean leader elaborating on the state's ambitions to build its economy, hopes were raised that Pyongyang would make the decision to discard its nuclear program to get sanctions lifted this year.
However, Thae said “As a North Korean diplomat, I do not think there is a possibility that the North would engage in such rational thinking or decision-making.”
Thae was North Korea's deputy ambassador to the U.K., who defected to the South in 2016. He is the highest-ranking North Korean official to have defected. Since he came to the South, he has been speaking critically of the Kim regime.
In an interview with Asahi Shimbun released Wednesday, the defector said North Korea does not want to give up its nuclear program, but rather scale it down.
He said North Korea wants the U.S. to acknowledge its regime as a nuclear state and for bilateral talks to be about reducing its nuclear program.
He said in the debate session that whether the negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington would be about denuclearization or reducing its nuclear program would determine the prospect of talks.
“If the U.S. agrees to talks on nuclear arms reduction, many negotiations would take place including talks on establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
“However, if the U.S. insists on denuclearization talks, the North's relations with the U.S. as well as the South will not see as much progress as in 2018.”
Thae also said sanctions relief and a peace treaty ending the 1950-53 Korean War would be a condition of nuclear disarmament.
The defector said what Kim is most interested in are economic benefits such as through the resumption of the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial complex and tours to Mount Geumgang.
He said if one of these is achieved, the North Korean leader would be willing to meet President Moon Jae-in for another summit at the truce village of Panmunjeom, if not Seoul.