North Korea "South Korean drones infiltrate Pyongyang"...Government "Uncheckable"

■ Host: anchor Yoon Jae-hee
■ Starring: former Vice Unification Minister Kim Hyung-seok

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN 24] when quoting.



[Anchor]
It is time for <Korean Peninsula Review> to analyze North Korean issues and diplomatic security news on the Korean Peninsula. I will be with former Vice Unification Minister Kim Hyung-seok. North Korea's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that South Korean drones have infiltrated Pyongyang. I also released a picture. Did you see this picture? We looked at

[Kim Hyung-seok]


[Anchor]
How are you analyzing it?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
North Korea issued a major statement last night. First of all, isn't that the situation itself happened for three, nine, and 10 days in a row?
So it's not the first time this has happened, but I think it's important why you did it yesterday. So what yesterday is like is that the ASEAN leaders, who have a friendly stance toward North Korea, gather together to make various provocations and develop nuclear weapons, which are problematic in themselves. We issued this joint statement. Therefore, from North Korea's point of view, they are criticizing themselves when they should give them a friendly voice. In that case, the Republic of Korea is a much more dangerous subject than they think.

So drones, drones that violate international law, infiltrate very key areas of Pyongyang, and at night. Therefore, they are more victims of a kind because they sprayed leaflets against North Korea, which could be a bomb. North Korea is more of a victim than President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea says. It can be said that it is very meaningful to hold such an international public opinion war.

[Anchor]
North Korea claims that South Korea's military sent it. The South Korean military refuted that it had never done that, but re-exposed the government's official position that it could not be confirmed. Should I say it was a strategy answer?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
I think you should look at it like that. Because for North Korea, this is really serious. So North Korea actually said South Korea sent drones, South Korean authorities sent them, civilians sent them, or if you look at the possibility, North Korean civilians could send them. But I couldn't refer to it. I need to give a bad image to Korea. It was said to be Korea, but first of all, it is an important area called a quasi-area. North Korea's Central Government Complex, in Korea, it's like Yongsan. A drone fell in such an area, and a drone came and dropped an anti-North Korean leaflet. Then it's really dangerous. But this is serious, and North Korea has to find out this serious thing on its own. But we don't have to say that the answer is this. From that point of view, I think it was a reasonable response to show strategic ambiguity in our military.

[Anchor]
We heard the representative of the North Korean defectors' group, and the answer was that we are not in a position to send drones due to cost issues.

[Kim Hyung-seok]
First of all, the drone itself costs a bit. However, I respect the North Korean defector group for saying this. I'm not saying that
has any basis for this, but it's that the cost of using drones is not financed by any specific organization itself. It's not just with your own money, but with the funding of people or groups that share your will, so first of all, North Korean defectors' organizations say that.For now, I think it is reasonable to leave it open rather than exclude the possibility that the private sector cannot do it because of the high cost.

[Anchor]
Some mention of the possibility of North Korea's own play is also made, but what do you think is the most likely?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
In the past, especially in the Kim Jong-un era, they talk about things that are not true as if they happened. But it's mostly about what happened on our side. And in the past, if you look at North Korea, you have manipulated pictures and exaggerated them. But even in this case, there is a possibility that North Korea will make its own play.Ma, if we do a self-produced drama, we and the international community will be able to confirm the facts. Then, didn't North Korea spread false information to the international community?

According to a major statement last night, Korea's actions themselves are serious provocations and violate international law, and the international community should raise its voice to say that Korea is bad. I was like this, but this is a self-written play? If this happens, it's a huge problem. So, my personal judgment is that rather than doing my own play in this way, a drone appeared over Pyongyang and I felt a serious threat about it, and I think it was my intention to change public opinion because countries that are friendly to North Korea in ASEAN keep saying that they are bad about North Korea.

[Anchor]
We're showing it to you on the screen.Ma also released that photo to North Koreans. But as the vice minister said earlier, it's a very dangerous thing for North Korea, but why did he disclose it?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
First of all, it is dangerous that the anti-aircraft network has been breached, but in this regard, it is not such a serious risk because it has only been a propaganda leaflet against North Korea. This is a countermeasure within North Korea. But another thing I think about here in North Korea is basically cutting ties with the Republic of Korea. So, since the end of last year, it has been a so-called hostile state of war, and the Republic of Korea is not the same people, but has different ideas from ours, and is such a mean nation that tries to threaten us. That's why we're asking to get rid of the people themselves. So, in this situation, what else is in the heart of Pyongyang and Jung-gu Station is Pyongyang Station. So when you see Pyongyang residents, they do it a lot. They are sprinkling leaflets to this extent. By giving the image of these really bad people, they are trying to get rid of the so-called dependence on South Korea and positive emotions that North Koreans have.

[Anchor]
At the same time, North Korea mentioned that it was prepared to use all means of attack. What are some armed provocation cards that North Korea can try?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
There could be a lot of things. It's from low to medium, high intensity, and if you look at past cases, we even fired with an anti-aircraft gun when we went to North Korea. So that could be the case, and if we look at it now, we're doing various military exercises near the armistice line. But North Korea is making a different argument about a kind of area.
You can use that as an excuse to shoot a gun or something like that, and in some cases, you can do that just because you crossed the line in the West Sea, and then I think it's possible to launch artillery attacks on Yeonpyeong Island in the past. But this is actually possible, and when you do this, you'll make a timely judgment about whether North Korea will ever get what it wants to get. That's why all these possibilities should be considered open. Accordingly, we, especially our military, should prepare for this through close cooperation with the United States.

And the other is military provocations, but also non-military ones. Right now, I'm here today, too.Ma keeps sending trash balloons to North Korea. So in North Korea, they say it's a violation of international law just because drones came and did it, but if you look at this effect, didn't a lot of trash balloons fall in the Seoul area? And it's more dangerous if there's something else in the trash balloon, not trash. So they made a major statement this time, but they are already threatening us 28 times. It's kind of like an inner south Buddha. So you can keep sending trash balloons, and the other thing is the traditional method.E, I think there is a possibility that such measures, such as hacking in a cyber manner and then shutting down our major computer networks, and such actions.

[Anchor]
Let's also look at the news of the revision of the North Korean Constitution. The biggest concern was whether to delete the unification phrase or to establish territorial regulations, but North Korea said it had made a constitutional amendment.Ma didn't disclose this. Maybe he didn't? What do you think?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
Given North Korea's behavior in the past, it is highly likely that it has not been done. And if I do it, it'll be known later. If it's known by a education source, it's ambiguous to explain this. Because Chairman Kim Jong-un has already openly told us to revise the constitution related to unification, but he actually does it and secretly discloses it later? You can't do that. So, as of now, it seems that the constitution has not been revised at this Supreme People's Assembly. Then why didn't it come true? That's important now, but the first is that the conditions for removing the provisions related to unification within North Korea have not yet matured. So, if you listen to various sources about North Korea, they suddenly reunified in the previous generation, but suddenly they won't? What's this? There's something like this. So all of a sudden, Kim Jong-un is also ruling, so wouldn't he want smooth governance? So in that sense, there's a problem with doing this even though it hasn't been fully explained yet. Next, the North Korean system itself is centered on the Labor Party.

If the Labor Party decides, the Supreme People's Assembly will carry out the decision. So there's a Labour Party protocol, but there's still a clause in the Labour Party protocol that's related to unification. The rules of the Labour Party have not changed, but we cannot change this in the constitution that falls under that subordinate statute. So in that one procedural aspect, I didn't change the rules of the Labor Party yet, but I did. So there may be procedural problems, so it's taken out, and the third is the most important thing. It's a two-state theory, but it's not a two-state theory, it's a North Korean unification, and in some cases, a strong and powerful unification by force. That's their basic intention, but it's still applied to the North Korean Constitution. So first of all, in the northern hemisphere of the Republic, we create a communist society, and then through unification, in North Korea, it's called the Korean Peninsula. Since it means putting the entire Korean Peninsula within their control, their goal is already that, but that goal is reflected in the Constitution now. But getting rid of this is different in a way. So I think that's three reasons. I think we have to watch carefully in the future.

[Anchor]
In the midst of this, North Korea suddenly took out a card to block the entire inter-Korean land route. Such a move has been around for a long time, but why is it suddenly formalized like this?

[Kim Hyung-seok]
First of all, as we said in our military, isn't it that all of them have already been blocked by the end of August? But I think this is the reason why I'm doing this. Therefore, the existing blocking measures are insufficient. As it was reported a while ago, they have already defected through the DMZ area. So I need to block this more thoroughly. That requires additional measures. It is not enough to have the current structure and the current defense.

So we're going to have to do additional construction, and we're going to notify the U.S. military of this. First of all, military tensions are increasing in the DMZ area, and for example, there will be a bombing sound when construction is being carried out. Then there seems to be an aspect that we will resolve the misunderstanding, and the other thing is that this itself will be known to North Korea. Then, I think the purpose is to show that the North Korean internal authorities have a strong will to sever inter-Korean relations.

[Anchor]
I see. I took a closer look at the North Korean issue. I was with former Vice Unification Minister Kim Hyung-seok. Thank you for talking with me today.