[앵커]
This is Saturday’s ‘Korea Peninsula Briefing’ chat section, which recaps the situation on the Korean Peninsula and diplomatic and security issues over the past week.
Yonhap News TV Beijing Correspondent and Yonhap News North Korea Correspondent Lee Bong-seok, who is currently in charge of the international field, are out.
Hello.
[기자]
Hello.
[앵커]
First, let’s introduce the main issues.
[기자]
Yes, it is known that Chairman Kim Jong-un has stated that he needs US troops in Korea to protect it from China.
This is what the former Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, presented in his biography published this week.
Today, we’re going to look at how plausible this is, and what it means if it’s true.
The biography also includes assessments of Kim Jong-un’s smoking habits and of Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
We’ll introduce you in a moment.
We will also inform you in detail about the fact that a blockade order has been issued in Pyongyang before the military parade.
It is known that North Korean workers sent to Russia defected en masse and entered South Korea.
[앵커]
I heard that Chairman Kim Jong-un said that he needs US troops in Korea to protect himself from China.
Revealed by former Secretary Pompeo in his biography, how do you see it?
[기자]
Yes, former Secretary Mike Pompeo published a memoir this week.
The title of the book is ‘Don’t give up an inch’.
As you know, on the last day of March 2018, former Secretary Pompeo secretly visited Pyongyang as the director of the CIA, and attended the first North American summit held on June 12, two months later.
The book includes conversations with Chairman Kim Jong-un during his visit to North Korea.
I also bought an e-book on Amazon and looked at the content, but since it is sensitive, the direct translation of the content related to the USFK is as follows.
“I told Chairman Kim that the Chinese Communist Party kept telling the US that Chairman Kim would be happy if USFK withdrew. Then Chairman Kim laughed and slammed the table and said, ‘We ‘the Chinese are liars.’
Chairman Kim also said that he needs US troops in Korea to protect it from the Chinese Communist Party and that the Chinese Communist Party needs to withdraw US troops from Korea to treat the Korean Peninsula like Tibet or Xinjiang.”
Based on Chairman Kim’s comments, former Secretary Pompeo opined that North Korea would not be averse to expanding US ground and missile capabilities on the Korean Peninsula.
Former Secretary Pompeo said that for complete denuclearization, Chairman Kim must fulfill three prerequisites: Even if he gives up his nuclear program, it will be different from Hussein’s disastrous words in Iraq or Gaddafi in Libya; He presented this conversation with Chairman Kim, explaining that he needed to believe that he would be protected from .
If Chairman Kim’s comments are true, it can be seen that North Korea is also taking China’s threat seriously.
North Korea and China look like blood allies on the outside, but inside the power of North Korea, there is a sense of crisis that if USFK withdraws, China could treat North Korea as a vassal state.
Pompeo also argued that China had little discretion over North Korea in denuclearization talks.
Again, let’s translate the biography as it stands.
It describes the time of the Singapore summit.
“The Chinese Communist Party gave Chairman Kim Jong-un almost no discretion to reach an agreement.
Whenever Chairman Kim met with me or former President Trump, he had a long conversation with President Xi most of the time a few days ago.
The North Korea issue has always been seen as a proxy war with the Chinese Communist Party.
China doesn’t control all of North Korea, but it’s close. “
In fact, North Korea’s opposition to China is deeply rooted. I will listen to the experts for a while and then I will continue.
“Previously, during North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il’s talks with the Clinton administration, he told American officials that the United States is not our main enemy and that China is the real reason for developing nuclear weapons. I am with you.”
However, former Secretary Pompeo may have exaggerated what he said in the memoir, and even if Chairman Kim had said this, he may not have meant it.
The possibility of ‘lip service’ to present the outcome of the summit in North America cannot be ruled out.
For example, around the same time, Chairman Kim Jong-un told Chung Eui-yong, then head of the White House National Security Office, who visited Pyongyang, “I understand that the ROK training -US occurring at the level of the previous year.”
Vice Chairman Kim Yeo-jeong continues to criticize the ROK-US training.
The memoir also presented the process of meeting the leaders of the two Koreas and the United States at Panmunjom in 2019, and former Secretary Pompeo wrote that Chairman Kim only wanted to meet President Trump at that time.
[앵커]
What if there are other descriptions in the book, such as Chairman Kim’s smoking habits?
Let me introduce you next.
[기자]
Yes, the conversation between the two went on for several hours.
However, the conversation was cut off every 45 minutes, because Chairman Kim answered the phone in the middle and went outside to smoke.
It is said that I am a smoker to the extent that I cannot stand an hour.
Chairman Kim also admitted that he likes high end cigars.
Then, former Secretary Pompeo said that he would be able to smoke the world’s best Cuban cigarettes on the fine beaches of Miami after the talks were over, and Chairman Kim replied that he was friendly with the Cuban Castro family.
Several anecdotes have been revealed which show that Chairman Kim is very sensitive to his height.
Former Secretary Pompeo wrote that Chairman Kim is about 165 cm tall and wore high heels during the North American summit in Singapore in June 2018. “Chairman Kim could not give an inch.”
Also, during the North Korea-US summit, when President Trump explained that he took Chairman Kim’s nickname, “Little Rocket Man,” from the title of an Elton John song, Chairman Kim said, “Rocket Man is a yes, Little is a no ,” and the attendees burst into laughter.
Former Secretary Pompeo appears to have an overall unfavorable impression of Chairman Kim.
Because the book said, “The world already knows that Chairman Kim is a bloody bad person.”
He also criticized his counterpart, Kim Young-chul, who was then the head of the United Front Department, as “the nastiest person I have ever met.”
It was also included that the Cheonan sinking incident was among Kim Young-chul’s careers.
Above all, the bad reviews of Chinese President Xi Jinping are impressive.
Pompeo described Russian President Putin as evil but fun and cheerful, while President Xi was dark and dead-eyed.
[앵커]
I heard that a blockade order has been issued in Pyongyang.
Is the corona situation serious?
[기자]
Yes, news of the siege was first reported by NK News, an American media outlet specializing in North Korea.
They are said to have received a proclamation from the North Korean authorities.
The closing period is five days from last Wednesday to tomorrow.
The announcement contained information that diseases, including the common cold, were spreading in Pyongyang.
There was no mention of COVID-19.
North Korean authorities have instructed residents to have temperature checks several times a day during the lockdown.
NK News reported that hoarding appears to have taken place before the lockdown.
The content of the blockade became more specific when the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang presented the diplomatic work of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea via Facebook.
The blockade period is called a special quarantine period in North Korea, and it is said that it can be extended for 3 days depending on the situation.
North Korean authorities advised all employees of the diplomatic mission to refrain from going out and moving vehicles, and ordered them to voluntarily measure their body temperature four times a day and report the results to a friendly hospital in Pyongyang.
North Korea officially announced the end of the corona in August last year,
This containment order is interpreted as a measure to prevent large-scale spread ahead of the fever ceremony expected to take place next month.
In North Korea, it is known that the corona has spread greatly after a feverish military parade in Pyongyang in April last year.
[앵커]
I heard that North Korean workers sent to Russia defected en masse and entered South Korea. What is the reason for default?
[기자]
Yes, a total of 9 North Korean workers sent from Russia are known to have entered the country.
They came in at the end of last year, and they arrived the same day.
When I was working in Russia, I was working somewhere else, but I became a company during the process of entering Korea.
He is said to be receiving an education at Hanawon, a North Korean refugee resettlement support facility.
All nine are men, ranging in age from 20s to 50s, and are said to include two active soldiers.
It can be seen that the motivation for defecting is not only a dislike of the North Korean system, but also a fear of being sent to the Donbas region, which is currently at the forefront of the war in Ukraine.
Previously, the United States Radio Free Asia reported in October last year that “North Korean workers sent to Russia are fleeing in large numbers on the news that they could be sent to the eastern part of Ukraine, where the war is fierce. “
Let’s take a moment to hear what the experts have to say.
“I understand that the North Korean workers sent to Russia decided to escape to South Korea because they were shaken by the start of the war in Ukraine.”
However, the Unification Ministry is in a position where it is difficult to confirm matters related to North Korean defectors due to personal protection issues.
A total of 67 North Korean defectors entered South Korea last year, with 35 males and 32 females.
[앵커]
North Korea has refrained from provocations for four weeks after New Year’s Day.
This is different from the seven provocations in January last year.
Chairman Kim Jong-un has made no public appearances since visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on New Year’s Day.
It is seen that he took a breath before the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Korea on the 8th of next month and Starlight Day, the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on the 16th.
However, there is a risk that the situation on the Korean Peninsula will go into turmoil at any moment, as an object that appears to be a new Hwasong-17 ICBM was seized at a training site for the military parade, which is expected to be held on the anniversary of the founding of the armed forces or the birthday of Chairman Kim Jong-il.
Today’s Korean Peninsula briefing ends here.
Reporter Lee, then I’ll see you next week.
[기자]
Thank you
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2023/01/28 18:56 Sent
