The book ahead of the year-end meeting...Attention to the message to the U.S.

Kim Jong-un declared 'two hostile countries' at last year's plenary session

North Korea implements inter-Korean disconnection measures, including the bombing of a connected land route this year,

Ahead of the inauguration of the second Trump administration, attention is paid to the U.S. message

North Korea's Special Envoy for Special Affairs...Possible U.S.-North Korea Dialogue in mind

[Anchor]
North Korea is expected to hold an end-of-year plenary session this week to settle this year's achievements and provide policy directions for the New Year.

Above all, attention is focused on the message to the U.S. as it is about to launch the second Trump administration.

I'm reporter Lee Jong Won.

[Reporter]
At a plenary session of the party's central committee held at the end of last year, Kim Jong-un declared inter-Korean relations as "two hostile countries" rather than fratricidal relations and abolished the unification policy.

[Chosun Central Television (December last year): North and South Korea are no longer related to fraternity, but hostile relations, and warring relations between two warring states.]

Since then, North Korea has steadily implemented inter-Korean disconnection measures, such as breaking the land route between the two Koreas by blowing up parts of the north section of the Gyeongui and East Sea lines this year.

North Korea's year-end party plenary meeting, which settles the year and presents New Year's policy, usually takes place for about five days, and many predict that this year's message to the South will be an extension of the "two-state theory" declared last year.

In particular, some analysts say that they will use the political turmoil caused by the martial law incident in the South, such as the impeachment of President Yoon, as a justification for stressing the inevitability of the two national theories.

[Cho Han-beom / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for Unification: Chairman Kim ordered the deletion of the two national theories and the concept of a unified nation on the Korean Peninsula. So, there is a possibility that (the South's martial law and impeachment) will be used as a justification for this.]

Above all, the attention is the message to the U.S. to be released in time for the launch of the second Trump administration, which begins in January next year.

North Korea has yet to officially discuss Trump's re-election in state media, but in a speech last month by Chairman Kim Jong-un, he actually set conditions for the resumption of U.S.-North Korea dialogue.

Chairman of the states Affairs Commission Kim said he has been to all places where he can go to negotiations with the United States, but he only confirmed hostile North Korea policies, which were interpreted as meaning that he would not sit at the negotiating table with the United States again under the same conditions as in the past, such as complete denuclearization.

Recently, Trump named Richard Grenell, his closest aide, as the presidential envoy to handle North Korea and other issues, and previously named Alex Wong, who was in charge of working on U.S.-North Korea dialogue in the first government, as the national security adviser.

[Park Won-gon / Professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University] If the U.S. wants to talk to North Korea, there are preconditions. The minimum level of joint training, the suspension of the deployment of strategic assets, and the next level of nuclear disarmament negotiations, it seems very likely to demand such things.]

North Korea has convened the Supreme People's Assembly equivalent to our National Assembly on January 22 next year, shortly after Trump's inauguration, and the line and policy toward the U.S. are expected to be materialized through a speech at the Supreme People's Assembly following the party's plenary session at the end of the year.

I'm YTN's Lee Jong Won.

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video: Ma Young-hoo
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