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Thae Yong-ho: ‘N. Koreans should be guided to dump Kim Jong Un’

Thae Yong-ho: ‘N. Koreans should be guided to dump Kim Jong Un’

Posted January. 02, 2017 07:12,   

Updated January. 02, 2017 07:23

한국어
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un strongly expressed his determination to make additional provocations on Sunday, the New Year’s Day, saying, “We are in the concluding stages of the preparation to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).”

”As long as the U.S. and its following forces continue nuclear threat and intimidation, and fail to halt the stir of war drills in the name of annual practice right in front of our doors, North Korea will continue to increase the military capabilities for self-defense and preemptive strikes centered around nuclear force,” Kim said in his fifth-year verbal New Year’s message.

Watchers say that Pyongyang will attempt to demonstrate its ICBM capability before January 8, Kim Jong Un’s birthday, or January 20, the inauguration day of the Donald Trump administration, before conducting a nuclear test timed with the South Korea-U.S. joint Key Resolve military drill, which will take place in March.

In a related development, Thae Yong-ho, former deputy ambassador at the North Korean Embassy in the U.K. who defected to the South, had an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo on December 29. “The only way to curb Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambition is to move the heart of North Korean people, and thus prompt senior North Korean officials and citizens to stage uprising against Kim Jong Un,” Thae said, stressing, “We have to inform North Koreans that the way to assure the future of North Koreans is to dismantle the deification of the Kim Jong Un family in the heart of North Koreans by proactively sending in information from outside.”

In the interview, Thae provided in details various information that is different from views so far from outside the North, including the implementation process of key policies in the North, and the emotion that he feels about the start of his new life in Seoul. As Thae started external activities in earnest, North Korea’s propaganda media outlets targeting South Korea mentioned his real name for the first time on December 30, and started condemning him by calling him a "top-rated criminal." This means that Thae’s activities and remarks pose such serious threat to the North Korean regime.



Sung-Ha Joo zsh75@donga.com