kim jong-un's leadership reaches its 10th year this week meanwhile the u.s blacklisted
north korea's new defense minister to help us read between the lines we have dr kum yeonghan
in the studio with us dr gil thank you for making time for us again today
it's good to be here well december 17th is the 10th anniversary of kim jong's father's death and
going back to that point in time there were loves it spurred a lot of speculations across the globe
so there's a lot of speculation whether how long kim jong-un will last in power because
kim jong-un was pretty much an unknown quantity if actually also he was an unknown quantity even
to the north koreans many high-level north korean defectors uh testified that they didn't know about
kim jong-un's existing existence until at least 2009 in a way like indian made a very surprising
entrance in 2010 and then uh his father kim jong-un died a year after so but then on the
other hand he was believed that kim jong-un was groomed to be the successor to his father since
at least 2008 so he had some time to be trained to succeed kim jong-il but on the other hand it's
also a very short period of time to be fully uh you know to assume power right away so in a way
kim jong-un came to power with a very shaky ground he had a little experience he was he was young in
a very conservative society where age was highly respected and he was didn't really have much of a
credibility not just to the outside powers but also within north korea but then there are 10
years since then he has surprised many observers just by surviving and in addition to that
there's some surprise outcomes in his 10 years a 10-year rule such as a face-to-face meeting
with a sitting u.s president donald trump which happened twice is something that his predecessors
could only have dreamed of so he in a way like surpass his father and grandfather even um in some
regards but also he's facing very fundamental challenges that in my view could really shake
the foundation of the region to the ground uh in the next uh in the near future i would
say right here to overcome a lot of expectations and skepticisms along the way the back thing kim
jong-un was yet to solidify his script in power but time has passed by and how much has it changed
and how has it impacted south korea so again but just by surviving he has shown that he can last
so in that sense this 10 years has done him a lot of good job in the sense that he has been able to
foster credibility uh inside the country also outside the country and i think south korea
there are some south korean experts who believe that kim jong-un wouldn't last too long in power
so they made it out of they essentially they accommodated the expectation into the i reflected
this uh expectation into the policy so in a way uh by arresting this expectation uh kim jong-un
has forced the south koreans to reconsider uh the uh i would say the prospect of kim jong-un
remain in power for a long time and i think that right now there's an understanding that
kim jong-un will be able to survive uh and then hit uh have to actually keep the grieving power
for a considerable amount of time and that means that we have to essentially reflect that fact
and then deal with north korea that's actually politically stable but perhaps economically
unstable there will be a very important parliamentary meeting in february in north korea
and reportedly the focus will be on the state budget issues of adopting laws on child care and
overseas compatriots what else can we expect so so uh so far the agenda announced for the spring
people's assembly for next february it's a pretty actually uh plain in many ways we're talking about
internal budget discussions as well as evaluating 2021's police executions and so forth but on the
other hand kim jong-un may actually make an appearance during the assembly meeting and
hopefully if he does so then he's going to give a speech but this could be that he actually includes
certain important policy announcements in that in the speech uh maybe making remarks about uh
uh the the future uh interaction between north korea and the united states and and also that's
going to set the term for the uh south korea i mean north policies for south korea as well on
monday the u.s blacklisted north korea's new defense shifts on the grounds of forced labor
and human rights violation so how does move reflect the direction of the administration's
policy in dealing with north korea this actually happened to be the first substantial sanctions
announcement by the dubai nurse station this year and and also it i think the sanctions made on the
ground of human rights violation violations which the onscreen regime is very sensitive about so i
think it doesn't really change a ton a little bit about uh what the vitamin station has been saying
about their attitude towards north korea the binary station has been saying that they are open
to dialogue in north korea anytime anywhere but i think north korea is going to take this as an
announcement that deep down the violation is more interested in keeping north korea down in a way
rather than engaging in dialogue with pyongyang so even though this announcement was made in
the context of the world human rights day and other countries and regimes have been sanctioned
at the same time but the north korea is probably taking this as a message that uh
especially in comparison to the you know by the president by this processor uh president
trump who actually tried not to apply sanctions against north korea in the last two years of
israel uh eastern europe as president so i think north korea will be probably be sensitive about
this but then uh but the north korea is so far quiet so there's some hope that north korea might
actually overlook this this time around and we're also learning that the the younger brother of
north korea's founder and once a powerful official has died according to state media uh can you tell
us more about this development so uh kim yong-joo the younger brother of north korea's founder kim
song he's 100 years old when he passed away yesterday but on the other hand he was the
only important figure in the 70s when he was uh he emerged as a potential competitor to kim jong-il
the kim kim jong-un's father who later became the leader of north korea so there's a little bit of
power struggle in the early seventies between kim yong-joo kim jong's brother and kim jong-il
but then kim kim jong-un prevailed in the power struggle and became the leader of north korea
then kim yong-joo was essentially approached from the position of power and he was exiled internally
for at least 20 years when later he made a comeback to the political scene in north korea
kim jong-un kim jong-il had already consolidated his power base so he essentially became just
uh say like an elder figure in the north korean politics without having much influence
so he was a non-factory even long before kim jong-un all right there was a doctor and thank
you so much for coming in today and sharing us with your insights we appreciate it my pleasure