By Sangwon Yoon - Apr 16, 2012 6:50 AM GMT+0700
North Korea won’t be bullied by its nuclear-armed enemies, third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un said in his first public address at a military parade as South Korea warned that his regime may conduct an atomic test.
Dressed in a dark Mao suit and standing on a podium high above Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang yesterday, the new leader said, “the days of enemies threatening and blackmailing us with nuclear weapons are forever over.” Goose-stepping soldiers, mobile rocket launchers and tanks rumbled through the streets below in a celebration broadcast on state television.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives his first public speech in Pyongyang. Source: AP Photo/KRT via AP video
North Korean soldiers march during a military parade to mark 100 years since the birth of Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
North Korean soldiers carry a portrait of late leader Kim Jong-Il during a military parade to mark 100 years since the birth of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. Photographer: Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images
A North Korean soldier salutes during a military parade to mark 100 years since the birth of Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. Photographer: Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea’s humiliation from a long-range rocket that disintegrated within minutes of liftoff two days earlier increases the chance of Kim ordering an atomic test to regain face, South Korean Deputy Defense Minister Lim Kwan Bin said on April 13. The launch also ended a U.S. food-aid deal.
“Kim is very aware of how powerful the military is and knows his only strategy is to keep selling the ‘military-first’ policy,” said Koh Yu Hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul’s Dongguk University. “Stability is what the young Kim needs most and he needs the full support of the military.”
The parade was broadcast on North Korean state television and held to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Kim’s late grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung. The younger Kim is thought to be less than 30 years old and assumed power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack on Dec. 17.
Ballistic Missile
It also featured what appeared to be a new, larger ballistic missile, said Baek Seung Joo, who studies Pyongyang’s military at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. South Korea’s Defense Ministry was unable to comment on the design or whether it was a real missile.
North Korea, which technically remains at war with the South since their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty, has 1.2 million people in its armed forces and has twice detonated an atomic device, in 2006 and 2009.
“In order to realize our goal of building a socialist, strong and prosperous nation, we must first, second and third strengthen the people’s army on all fronts,” said Kim, who shuffled his feet as he read from notes. “We have grown into a powerful military, equipped with our own means of defense and attack in any modern war.”
He didn’t mention the rocket launch or his regime’s atomic weapons program during the speech, which lasted 20 minutes. While North Korea said the launch was intended to put a satellite into orbit, the U.S. said it violated international commitments and scrapped the February plan to provide 240,000 tons of food aid.
Starving People
North Korea can’t compete against world superpowers in an arms race and must give up its conventional and nuclear weapons development programs to focus on improving its economy, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said in a radio speech today.
Last week’s launch may have cost $850 million, equivalent to six years worth of food for the North’s 24 million people, Lee said. As many as 1 million people starved to death during the 1990s, according to estimates from Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C.
The North’s parliamentary body ruled to allocate 15.8 percent of the total state budgetary expenditure for national defense this year, the official Korean Central News Agency said on April 14, citing Finance Minister Choe Kwang Jin.
Kim Jong Il’s third son inherited an economy a 40th the size of South Korea’s. His father also left behind the goal of making the North a “strong and prosperous nation” by 2012.
Kim Jong Un, who formally assumed the regime’s top political and military posts last week, acknowledged past economic difficulties.
‘Splendor of Socialism’
“The Workers’ Party firmly determines that the people, who suffered much hardship, should enjoy the wealth and splendor of socialism and never again tighten their belts,” he said.
Soldiers massed in formation filled the square, while citizens watched from the periphery, waving red and pink pompoms. Celebrations continued into the night, with fireworks and a laser show lighting the skies over the capital.
New homes were built for 300 farming families and a new hydroelectric power plant opened last week in the northwestern province of Jagang, according to KCNA reports on preparations for the Kim Il Sung anniversary.
The words “Our eternal leader Comrade Kim Il Sung” were also carved 37 meters high into a rock face near Gaeseong, where North Korea operates a joint economic zone with South Korea.
Kim Jong Un, who was schooled in Switzerland, styles his hair and mannerisms like his grandfather. He appeared more charismatic in his speech yesterday than his father, who shunned national addresses, according to Kim Hyung Suk, the spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
“Kim is taking after his charismatic grandfather, the family patriarch, in trying to engage the people more openly,” said Kim Young Yoon, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of National Unification in Seoul.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sangwon Yoon in Seoul at syoon32@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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