[News Now] Kim Jong-un, Yoon, "Awkward Person"... "Criticizing Nonsense"

■ Proceedings: Anchor Jung Ji-woong
■ Telephone connection: Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN NewsNOW] when quoting.


[Anchor]
Ask a professional about a hot issue.

It's an issue call.

North Korean State Councilor Kim Jong-un has poured out high-level criticism against President Yoon Suk Yeol.

I poured out my rude talk during a visit to the training base of the Special Operations Unit in the Western District.

He criticized that he suspected an "unfriendly person," saying that he had spoken of the overwhelming response of military forces in front of a nuclear power.

It seems to be aimed at President Yoon's remarks at the Armed Forces Day ceremony on the 1st.

Let's listen to the commemorative speech first.

[Yoon Suk Yeol] If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face a decisive and overwhelming response from our military and the South Korea-U.S. alliance. It will be the day of the end of the North Korean regime.]

Chairman of the states Affairs Commission Kim directly referred to President Yoon Suk Yeol as a 'Yoon Suk Yeol puppet,'

It is the first time in more than two years that President Yoon has been criticized for his real name since his speech at the 'Victory Day' event in July 2022.

The reason why he criticized his real name for the first time in a while may be because of internal and external situations, what kind of intent is there?

I'm connecting Professor Park Won-gon of Ewha Womans University to learn more. Professor, you're out, right?

[Park Won-gon]
Hello.

[Anchor]
While mentioning the real name of the Yoon Suk Yeol, North Korea criticized him as an "unfriendly person." I think the level of the message has increased, is there a background?

[Park Won-gon]
This isn't the first time you've been criticized for your real name. He has already been talking about President Yoon's real name several times. This time, as you said earlier, we are carrying criticism regarding the Armed Forces Day event, and we see some characteristics. Not only General Secretary Kim Jong-un but also Kim Yo-jong are talking about this.

The first is North Korea's nuclear threats based on its confidence in nuclear weapons, and according to Kim Jong-un's speech, he criticizes the overwhelming response of military forces at the gate of a country with nuclear weapons, which itself is not intact, and there are many very strong expressions.

It will be impossible for Seoul and South Korea to exist forever. They clearly expressed a kind of nuclear coercion that their nuclei have great physical destructive power. The second is the willingness to possess nuclear weapons. It's a direct expression of Kim Jong Un, saying he will never denuclearize.Ma will never take away our nukes and is irreversible. They're saying it's impossible to give up nuclear weapons. I think these things rather expose some kind of vulnerability in North Korea.

Because if you look at the announcement of Kim Yo-jong, it expresses the end of the regime with a nervous reaction. It is the end of the regime, as South Korea and the U.S. warned many times if North Korea used nuclear weapons. That's included in President Yoon's speech this time. This was also published in the North Korean internal media. This is a very big weakness that North Korea has in a way. Since North Korea is a one-man system, the end of the regime refers to the elimination of the main command of the one-man system, which means that the control system cannot be maintained after all. It's a field where Korea and the U.S. can exercise deterrence.

So I think they're revealing their weaknesses. Second, as North Korea said, at the event of our Armed Forces Day on October 1, South Korea showed more than 80 types of armed equipment, including the triaxial strike system. It showed a very high-tech conventional military power. North Korea's conventional military power is definitely inferior. And one of the things I was most interested in was the Hyeonmu-5 ballistic missile that our government recently showed, weighing 8 tons. Kim Yo-jong openly criticized this, but criticized it, but their nuclear weapons have 900 tons of explosive power, not 8 tons of weight. In fact, no matter how much conventional weapons Korea makes, it is useless.

This is also a certain level of self-contradiction in North Korea. As North Korea said on the 19th, they made these missiles. 4.5 tons of high-weight warheads, called Hwasung artillery 11-11 Da-4.5 We don't have to make these weapons if it's really solved with nuclear weapons. As such, I think the burden of Korea's very advanced conventional weapons can be read here.

[Anchor]
In the past, when looking at a soccer game between the two Koreas, there has been a controversy by writing Korean teams as "monsters." It's often called a puppet, not a South Korean one. This time, President Yoon was described as a Yoon Suk Yeol puppet. What kind of intent is this?

[Park Won-gon]
North Korea used to call South Korea a puppet. What this means is that a puppet means a puppet, doesn't it? In the sense that Korea is a colony of the United States, not a sovereign state, and the Korean government is a puppet government established by the United States. In fact, South Korea has also previously called North Korea a North Korean puppet regime. At that time, it was meant to be a puppet of the Soviet Union. At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, North Korea denied its people, declared itself as a Kim Il Sung people, and said that South Korea was not the same people because it belonged to the Republic of Korea, and said that it would give up reunification.

Then, as the degree of criticism of Korea has been strengthened while promoting the two hostile state theories, the puppet regime is often used. This is also hostile to what North Korea is saying, but Kim Jong-un said this himself while talking about the two-state theory. I said that I would renew my Republic's policy toward South Korea on the basis of recognizing two countries that coexist on the Korean Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula. If so, it would be contradictory to use the term "monster" if the two countries were recognized.

[Anchor]
It has to be recognized as a sovereign state. B-1B strategic bombers appeared on Armed Forces Day. Earlier, North Korean Defense Minister Kim Kang-il announced a statement, saying, "It's a bluffing show of force from the United States." I'm sure there's something sensitive about the high-performance U.S. weapons, right?

[Park Won-gon]
That's right. It will appear again in Kim Yo Jong's statement on the 3rd. The U.S. strategic bomber B-1B appeared on Oct. 1. Kim Kang-il's statement is very unusual because it came before the B-1B deployment was decided on our Armed Forces Day. So, we can read some meanings here, and first, I think North Korea itself acknowledges that its nuclear capabilities can never be balanced with the United States.

There are nuclear strategic bombers, nuclear-powered strategic submarines, and intercontinental ballistic missiles that the United States has, of course, superior to the United States, and especially in the case of nuclear-powered strategic submarines in all weapons systems.Ma is a weapon system that North Korea will not be able to show in the future. Among them, there are two U.S. strategic weapons that North Korea is most afraid of, one of which is B-1B and the other is nuclear-powered strategic submarines.

This is because in the case of B-1B, it carries about 37.5 tons of weapons to Pyongyang, but North Korea cannot detect it at all. With this alone, Pyongyang is a conventional weapon, and it has no nuclear warheads.Ma can be devastated. One of the characteristics of this time is that B-1B usually flies from Landerson Base in Guam, but it flew directly from the mainland of the United States. Therefore, the ability of the United States to project these key strategic assets in the event of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula has been confirmed, which poses a huge threat to North Korea, and from the perspective of South Korea and the United States, the ability to suppress has been confirmed.

[Anchor]
Looking at North Korea's remarks, it seems that it is trying to emphasize itself as a nuclear power. What is the actual level of North Korea's nuclear weapons operation?

[Park Won-gon]
I think I've been advocating this very much this year. In particular, in April and May, Kim Jong-un participated in two key exercises. One is that there is a video alert, which is a nuclear alert. When that video alert was issued, they said they had a nuclear trigger, a comprehensive nuclear weapons management system, and they made it public in April and May in great detail. For example, if Kim Jong-un makes a decision as the chairman of the party's central military committee, it is sent as a secret cryptographic directive, and North Korea has virtually disclosed the entire process of operating the firepower system prepared by the military.

The last one is that they used KN-21, a multiple rocket launcher. So what North Korea wants to keep talking about here is that they have at least the ability to strike nuclear weapons against South Korea. I think there is also North Korea's intention here. Through this, North Korea is recognized as a de facto nuclear power and will naturally enter nuclear disarmament with the United States in the future. I think it also contains this political message that let's not talk about denuclearization anymore because they have the ability to attack South Korea.

[Anchor]
That's all for today. I looked into North Korea's remarks and the direction of inter-Korean relations with Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University. Thank you, professor.

[Park Won-gon]
Thank you.