Tokyo, 30 September, /AJMEDIA/
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to restore cross-border communication lines with South Korea in early October in a bid to build peace on the divided peninsula, state-run media reported Thursday, amid a severe downturn in the nation’s economy.
But in a speech on Wednesday at a session of the country’s top legislature, the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim also continued to criticize the United States for maintaining its “hostile policy” toward North Korea, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kim’s remarks were reported alongside several personnel decisions at the ongoing legislative session, most notably the by-election of Kim Yo Jong, the influential younger sister of Kim, as a new member of the State Affairs Commission, the country’s highest governing body.
The communication lines were reactivated in July after a 13-month shutdown, but Pyongyang stopped engaging in regular contact with Seoul through the lines when the United States and South Korea carried out joint military drills in August over its objections.
U.S.-North Korea talks over denuclearization and sanctions relief have been at a standstill for around two years, but the U.S. government under President Joe Biden denies having hostile intent toward Pyongyang and says it is ready to meet with the North Korean side.
“We have neither aim nor reason to provoke south Korea and no idea to harm it and it is necessary for south Korea to promptly get rid of the delusion, crisis awareness and awareness of getting harmed that it should deter the north’s provocation,” Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying.
He also said “the entire Korean nation” would like to “see the earlier recovery of the north-south relations from the present deadlock and durable peace settling” on the Korean Peninsula, the news agency reported.
As for Washington, however, Kim said, “The U.S. remains utterly unchanged in posing military threats and pursuing hostile policy toward” North Korea.
The Biden administration “is touting ‘diplomatic engagement’ and ‘dialogue without preconditions’ but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts,” Kim added.
Following the latest U.S.-South Korea military drills, which the North slammed as a “rehearsal for war,” Pyongyang has responded with increased military activities, such as by test-firing ballistic missiles.
But it has also left the door open for a potential summit meeting between Kim and the South Korean leader, in an apparent attempt to receive economic aid from Seoul, some foreign affairs experts say.
In response to Kim’s remarks on reconnecting the communication lines, a South Korean Unification Ministry official said the policy is viewed as the North Korean leader’s “official position” and therefore “we highly expect to see the restoration and stable operation of the inter-Korean communication lines.”
The official noted that South Korea has consistently voiced the need for the lines’ quick reconnection to discuss and solve pressing matters at hand.
KCNA also reported Thursday on the selection of Premier Kim Tok Hun as vice president of the State Affairs Commission, and Jo Yong Won, who is highly trusted by Kim Jong Un, as a new commission member.
North Korea is in the midst of a serious food crisis against a backdrop of natural disasters, as well as sluggish trade activities with China, its closest and most influential ally in economic terms, in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pyongyang claims it has no COVID-19 cases but is believed to be vulnerable to infectious diseases, due largely to chronic shortages of food and medical supplies triggered by international economic sanctions designed to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions.
