North Korea´s Blunt Rhetoric Sees No Ends

Early in the morning, I happened to watch BBC World´s new repeated news that "North Korea would scrap all the bilateral military agreements with South Korea." South Korea´s hostile attitude toward North korea was mentioned as the very reason for the North to scrap all the bilateral military agreements. I am a little worried that small military confrontations could happen on a limited scale.

North Korean regimes has declared its hostile total war against South Korea´s conservative government´s rather firm and fixed positions on the North Korea´s nuclear issues.

Military experts warned that there could be a little possibility of North Korea´s making limited military skirmishes against South Korean army, possibly on the Western Sea borders.

Actually this kind of simple news, just telling the world simple facts and happenings like this kind of news that North Korea acts on its own will to pursue North Korea´s interests, may be understood, in the eyes of normal citizens, in a normal way of state behaviors.

If someone looks into the substance of North Korea´s blunt tactics that have been employed all the time ever since dictatorial regime was born in 1948, it will take a very little time to get to the truth of North Korea´s unreasonable and blunt brinkmanship.

I have wrote more than hundreds of special columns either in Korean and in English, to warn that without the real changes in the substance of North Korea´s dictatorship, all the diplomatic rhetorics it makes to the outside world, are not based upon its sincerities and willingness to act on its own good will.

Looking back upon the last one year´s stance of North Korea, especially toward the South after the inauguration of Lee Myung-Bak Government, I could say with more confidence that North Korea has not changing at all, just has been behaving as it used to behave in the past.

After the inauguration of Barak Obama Administration in the United States(US), North Korea only repeats its old tactics of ´pretending to be good, but not good in actuality´ tactics, if I could define to use my own version of words.

´Six-Party mechanism plus direct dialogue between the US and North Korea´, in my judgement, would not change any substances that could resolve the deadlocked nuclear issue until North Korean regime really transforms itself in essence into a normal democratic state which shall observe all the international norms and rules set by multilateral negotiations.

At this moment of writing this column, BBC International is just repeating North Korea´s sudden agreement to scrap all the bilateral military agreement with South Korea on a maritime border.

More than anything else, it is very important for the international society to have a balanced view on the North Korea´s blunt diplomatic behaviors including this kind of announcement.

North Korea is not fair in its approach toward South Korea; they have not kept all the agreements that have been made between the two entities, for one typical example, 「South-North Basic Agreements」 in 1991, in which there is a transparent mutual commitment; any developments of nuclear weapons on the Korean soil shall be totally prohibited.

North Korea has made the basic spirit of this agreement just a meaningless paper by unilaterally developing and declaring its possession of nuclear weapons toward the international society.

International society must pay detailed attention to this kind of North Korea´s tactics to utilize everything, even at the cost of degrading its own brand name of North Korea, to create a better situation in which it could manage to maintain the Stalinist dictatorial, parochial regime forever, which is actually quite absurd, and moreover will be impossible in a ceratin passage of time.

I dare say with confidence that it is still to be seen whether it is willing to give up its nuclear ambitions entirely. Probably not. North Korea´s only goal is to sustain its regime of hard military dictatorship by the holy name and gratitude of Kim Jong-Il, Dear Leader, and Chairman of Military Defense Commission in North Korea.

The regime is continuously making fool of its 23 million innocent people.

I really do advise Hillary Clinton, new Secretary of Department of States, that even though Six-Party Talks are essential tool to ending North Korea´s nuclear ambitions, and North Korea´s nuclear proliferation must be resolved quickly through direct US diplomacy, she should be very careful not to repeat the same mistakes as the Bush Administration had committed in its nuclear deal negotiations with North Korea.

North Korea is not such a normal and reasonable state as we expect it should be.

by Prof. Dr. Tae-Woo Park, Visiting Professor, Dept. of Diplomacy, National Chengchi Univ. Republic of China, he also serves as the Honorary Consul of Timor-Leste in Korea, Secretary General of Democratic Pacific Union Korea Chapter.