The past 2018 was the year when expectations for peace on the Korean Peninsula reached their highest ever.
Inter-Korean summits were held in April, May, and September, and the first-ever North Korea-U.S. summit was held in June.
The bombing of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site was also carried out in May.
[Park Yong-gun / North Korea Nuclear Weapons Research Institute: Didn't you all see it? When I blew up the entrance, it exploded once again and erupted from the inside. There was an explosion from the inside. If only the entrance exploded, that would not happen.
From the beginning of that year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a reconciliation gesture in his New Year's address, expressing his intention to "dispatch and talk to the delegation of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics."
[Kim Jong-un / Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea: We must work together to ease military tensions and create a peaceful environment. Speaking of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, we are willing to take necessary measures, including sending delegations, and the North and South Korean authorities may meet urgently for this purpose.]
A high-level delegation, including Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's younger sister, visited South Korea at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Feb. 9.
Kim Yo Jong delivered a personal letter inviting President Moon to visit North Korea as Kim Jong Un's special envoy.
However, North Korea's real intentions were different.
On Feb. 8, a day before Kim Yo Jong's visit to Korea, a 70th anniversary event was held in North Korea.
This is a document that translates Kim Jong-un's statement to the 131 leadership bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea and the responsible workers of the 2nd Academy of Natural Sciences.
The 131 Leadership Bureau and the 2nd Academy of Natural Sciences are key institutions related to North Korea's nuclear development.
Surprisingly, the statement mentions the 'disposal of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site' carried out on May 24 of that year more than three months ago.
"Thorough measures should be taken in preparation for the enemy's outward-looking peace strategy regarding the disposal of the nuclear test site."
"We must firmly uphold the principles of self-reliance, peace, and national unity that North Korea has adhered to and not be swayed by the enemy's peace offensive"
[Kim Yeol-soo / Director of Security Strategy at the Korea Institute for Military Studies]: North Korea has already informed these people that on February 8th it will close its nuclear test site because it has already done what it will do with the inter-Korean summit and what it will do with the United States. This means how closely North Korean leader Kim Jong-un prepared for the inter-Korean summit and how carefully he prepared for the U.S.-North Korea summit.
In particular, he stressed that he will create a much better nuclear test site after the blast of the nuclear test site.
"A creation built at hundreds of millions of dollars is detonated today for world peace without hesitation, swallowing blood tears, but
If you make up your mind, you can create a more modern and technologically complete facility than you do today,
We should take pride in the honor of the solar people that we have a material-technical foundation to do so."
In addition, it is also noticeable that many people died during the nuclear development process.
"To the soldiers of 131 leadership countries who gave their lives without hesitation, the prosperity of the Party and the homeland and the outpost of a strong and prosperous country,
In the name of the
Party Central Committee and State Council, I pay the most noble tribute"
[CEO Lee Yoon-gul / North Korea Strategic Information Service Center: A person in one of the nine branches of Strategic Rocket Army Command 3 died after suffering tremendously from radiation damage caused by uranium damage. From these things, I think it may have been radioactive because they prepared to warhead and shoot North Korean nuclear weapons.]
A series of actions that caught the attention of the world's media in 2018: attending the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, dismantling the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, and four summits
The 2018 Kim Jong-un statement shows that all
was a thoroughly calculated show for North Korea's nuclear development over a long period of time.
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