South Korean Researchers: North Korea regime will never collapse
Story and photos by Chhay Sophal/Cambodia News & New Youth
Seoul, South Korea (9 July 2014): While the West often predict that North Korea can be dissolved soon, South Korean researchers and professors say the isolated state will never collapse but become stronger in term of nuclear weapons and missiles in the near future.
Speaking in a meeting with a group of international journalists in Seoul Tuesday, four South Korean experts and professors specializing in the North Korean issue affirmed that North Korea has tried hard to follow the past path of China in the 1970s to gain the US recognition for its power of nuclear weapon and long-range missiles.
Three strategic means – ideology and politic, military, and economy, that North Korea has been built so far in order to reach the US recognition, a senior expert asking for anonymity told the journalists in the meeting coordinated by the Hawai’i-based East-West Center. The two first two means — ideology & politic, and military – are the priority of North Korean regime, he added. When weapons and military become strong, economy can be followed, he said.
The West and other nations since 2005 have predicted that North Korea can collapse soon but it has not so far, said another expert; adding that North Korea’s long-range missiles are becoming much better and it can put nuclear weapons on the top of the missiles and target any area where it wants.
Sending its message to the region and the US not to interfere in its buildup of nuclear bombs and other defense capabilities, Pyongyang on Wednesday morning launched two short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast, in an apparent continuation of a recent series of missile and artillery test launches. The launching was made after Jon Pyong Ho, a former North Korean missile expert who was sanctioned by the United Nations for his role in the North’s nuclear and missile weapons programs, has died aged 88 of natural causes.
Pyongyang government set a proposal saying it is meant reduce tensions, including the cancellation of the war drills between Seoul and Washington but the proposal has been rejected by the current South Korean government of President Park Geun-hye citing that the North must first demonstrate that it is serious about nuclear disarmament if it truly wants peace.
However, one professor in the meeting launched his recommendations to the Park Geun-hye and the world to improve good relation with North Korea rather than generating anger. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is young and also having western idea since he studied in Switzerland. Kim Jong-un has shown the world that he wants to reform his regime’s policy to serve his ordinary citizens, the professor said. On Tuesday Kim Jong Un was shown limping on state television as he attended a memorial event commemorating the 20th anniversary of Jon Pyong Ho’s death.
Kim Jong-un really knows that his father’s and grandfather’s policy did not serve the ordinary citizens but the elite, he therefore tries to reform with careful move. While not asking the US to fight against North Korea, we do not China to support the North either although China never gives up but we need peace in the Korean peninsula and the region, the professor said. However, he suggests that Kim Jong-un must be more open and faithful for peaceful dialogue.
The United States and its allies such as Britain and France, including former Soviet Union [Russia], recognized China after it tested its first nuclear weapon device on 16 October 1964 and the weapon was developed as a deterrent against both the United States and the Soviet Union. Two years later, China had a fission bomb capable of being put onto a nuclear missile and China also tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1967 after testing its first nuclear weapon.
