“We are only holding a military parade in the capital, not military drills targeting anyone, nor are they launching anything. Why are they bothering to stretch their necks to follow what’s going on up north,” Kim said in a statement. statement published by the state of North Korea. -run news agency, KCNA.
Kim’s comments were published as a major week-long North Korean political event, the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party, drew to a close. The Congress is held for the rulers of North Korea to gather and reflect on successes and failures in recent years and to set an agenda for the near future. They are usually held every five years, but Kim’s father and predecessor – Kim Jong Il – retired after 1980. Kim Jong Un revived the meetings in 2016.
Experts had speculated that North Korea could mark the end of the convention with a military parade, but as of Wednesday afternoon in the Korean Peninsula, North Korean state media had not released images or video of such an event.
However, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said on Monday that it had noticed signs of a military parade that took place in North Korea on Sunday evening. North Korea will often release slick propaganda videos of these events instead of broadcasting them live.
Kim Yo Jong seemed to confirm that a parade had taken place while mocking the South for wasting its time, even though these parades provide valuable clues about the notoriously mysterious country’s weapon systems. Kim also argued that Seoul’s espionage was a sign of the “hostile approach to the countrymen in the north”.
“Do they really have nothing to do but have their military body do ‘precision tracking’ of the celebrations in the North?” she said.
Kim was photographed during congressional meetings meaning she is unlikely to have been purged. North Korean state media aired curious images wearing heels and skirts in the freezing cold weather. However, she was seen walking to the side – not lined up next to other officials and her brother, as she has often seen.
All of this points to the possibility that Kim’s title change will have little impact on what she does on a daily basis.
Cheong Seong-chang, a fellow at the Wilson Center’s Asia program and senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said that while Kim was effectively demoted, her statement shows that “she still has the problems regarding South Korea. handles and checks. “
Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected and went on to become a legislator in the South, said he does not place much value on the mystery surrounding Kim Yo Jong’s official role.
“Access to Kim Jong Un is a more important indicator of power status in North Korea,” said Thae.
North Korea’s Economic Focus
The main focus of the party congress, which began last week, was to improve North Korea’s economy.
“This was a conference that focused on the failures of the past five years of economic development, and how to learn from them and get it right over the next five years,” said John Delury, a professor at the Graduate School of International Relations. Yonsei University.
However, North Korea has not made public any specific plans on how the country will improve its economy in the medium term. The speeches and statements published contain typical choruses on socialism and self-reliance, but nothing that would improve the structural problems of the country’s extremely inefficient command economy.
Experts studying North Korea’s economy were concerned that Kim may have hinted at a crackdown on the country’s limited market launch, which was key to growth.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, the KF-VUB Korea Chair Holder at the Institute for European Studies, said it makes sense for North Korea to curb free trade in order to “allow greater control over the population,” but warned that the regime “does not. can really turn back over 20 years of marketing the economy. ”
North Korea’s nuclear plans
Kim Jong Un’s economic agenda may have seemed woefully short on the details, but his plans to upgrade and improve North Korea’s conventional and nuclear weapons were anything but.
The North Korean leader announced midway through Congress that Pyongyang was developing several new systems, including a nuclear-powered submarine, tactical nuclear weapons and advanced reentry vehicles designed to invade or trick missile defense systems.
Pyongyang would likely need to resume weapons testing in order to use new warheads or low yield nuclear weapons, and such tests would immediately provoke the ire of the international community.
Advanced reentry vehicles, delivering nuclear bombs to their targets, would reduce the effectiveness of US missile defense systems. The low-yield atomic bombs worry researchers because they are more palatable to use as a “first strike” option.
“Those are the capabilities more likely to be used in a limited conflict for coercive purposes, to achieve offensive targets,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow and the director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
It is now up to the new Biden government in the United States to prevent North Korea from developing and using these weapons, which Pyongyang is prohibited from doing under United Nations Security Council resolutions.
However, the prospects for renegotiations currently appear weak.
Despite Kim’s three face-to-face meetings with US President Donald Trump, he said he still sees the US as North Korea’s worst enemy. The North Koreans, Kim said, must “do all we can to strengthen our nuclear warfare deterrent and develop the strongest military capability,” to stand firm against Washington’s so-called “hostile policies.”
Mount and other experts believe that while the US should maintain its ultimate goal of ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons, Washington should focus on more realistic short-term performance.
“It is abundantly clear that North Korea will be a nuclear nation, a nuclear-armed state in the near future,” said Mount. “The bigger problems are these new systems that can pose a major stability risk.”