By Kim Young-jin
Hwang Jang-yop, the high-ranking North Korean defector and fierce critic of the Kim Jong-il regime who died Sunday, used some of his final words with the media to comment on the hereditary succession underway in Pyongyang and blast the regime a final time.
In an interview with local daily Dong-a Ilbo on Oct. 1, the former secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party mused on the power transfer underway from Kim to his youngest son, Jong-un.
“It’s too early to make judgments about him. He just recently began appearing in public, so we need time before making judgments,” the report quoted Hwang as saying.
Whether he will be a successful leader will depend on if he chooses to denuclearize the North, implement economic reform measures and open up the impoverished country to the outside world, said Hwang, who was 87 when he died of an apparent heart attack.
On the same day, the status of the junior Kim as heir was further consolidated when he made his public debut alongside his father at a massive military parade to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Worker’s party. Of the heir, Hwang is known to have derided as “that young one” while speaking during a visit to the United States in March.
“Whoever the successor is ― Kim Jong-un or someone else ― will make no difference unless the core problem of the North (totalitarian rule) is resolved,” the defector said.
Hwang, the main architect of Pyongyang’s ``juche” or self-reliance ideology, apparently took a harder stance on the succession shortly after the interview.
In a column for Daily NK, a website that monitors news on the North, the late Hwang slammed the plan, the site said Sunday.
“Kim Jong-il has turned his entire country into a huge prison; a place where a few million people starve and he enslaves the rest,” he wrote on Oct. 5. "Now he is making fun of and humiliating the North Korean people, making them shout ‘Hurrah!’ and ignoring the world after conferring a boy with the title of general.”
Known to have been a teacher to Kim and a confidant of his father, country founder Kim Il-sung, Hwang had been a vocal critic of the regime since his defection in 1997, despite continuous threats of retaliation from Pyongyang. In April, two North Korean spies were arrested after a botched assassination attempt on Hwang.
The defector also expressed concern that some in the South are skeptical that the North sunk the warship Cheonan in March, despite the findings of a multi-national investigation into the incident.
“The South, which is wealthier than the North, is showing such an attitude because it lacks ideological power,” he said in the interview. “For democracy in North Korea and Korean reunification, all South Koreans should arm themselves with ideology.”