Nοrth Korean Leader Makes Overture to South/ Kim Jong Un kündigt Ende der Konfrontation an

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to the "confrontation" with rival South Korea on Tuesday in what appeared to be an overture to the incoming South Korean president as she was cobbling together South Korea’s new policy on the North. 

North Korea on Tuesday issued a major policy statement on New Year’s Day, following a tradition set by Mr. Kim’s late grandfather, the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, and his late father, Kim Jong-il, who died in December last year, bequeathing the dynastic rule to Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim was the first supreme North Korean leader to issue the statement as his personal speech since his grandfather last did so before his death in 1994. During the rule of his reclusive father, Kim Jong-il, the statement — which laid out policy guidelines for the new year and was studied by all branches of the party, state and military— was issued as a joint editorial of the country’s main official media.

Mr. Kim’s speech on Tuesday, which was broadcast through the North’s state-run television and radio stations, was another sign that the young leader was trying to imitate his grandfather Kim Il-sung, who in life was considered a more people-friendly leader and is still widely revered among North Koreans.

Although Mr. Kim inherited the key policies of his father, outside analysts see him as trying to distance himself from the ruling style of his father, Kim Jong-il, who was more feared than respected among his people and whose rule was marked by a famine.

In his speech, Mr. Kim, echoed themes of previous New Year’s  messages, emphasizing that improving the living standards of North Koreans and rejuvenating the agricultural and light industries were among the improvised country’s main priorities.

But he revealed no details of any planned economic policy changes. He only mentioned a need to "improve economic leadership and management" and "spread useful  experiences created in various work units."

Since July, various news outlets in South Korea have reported that Mr. Kim’s new regime has begun carrying out cautious economic incentives aimed at boosting productivity at farms and factories. Some reports said the state was considering letting farmers keep at least 30 percent of their yield; currently, it is believed, they are allowed to sell only a surplus beyond a government-set quota that is rarely met.

Mr. Kim also vowed to strengthen his country’s military, calling for the development of more advanced weapons. But he made no mention of relations with the United States or the international efforts to halt its nuclear weapons program. He simply reiterated that his government was willing to "expand and improve upon friendly and cooperative relationships with all countries friendly to us." 

Mr. Kim’s speech followed the successful launching of a satellite aboad a long-range rocket in December. North Korea’s propagandists have since been busy  billing the launch as a symbol of what they called the North’s soaring technological might and Mr. Kim’s peerless leadership. Washington considered it a test of long-range ballistic missile technology and a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning such tests, and is seeking more sanctions to impose on the isolated country.

But it was his allusion to relations with South Korea that marked a departure in tone.

"A key to ending the divide of the nation and achieving reunification is to end the situation of confrontation between the North and the South," Mr. Kim said. "A basic precondition to improving North-South relations and advancing national reunification is to honor and implement North-South joint declarations."

He was referring to two inter-Korean summit agreements, signed in 2000 and 2007, when the then South Korean presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun were pursuing a  “Sunshine Policy” of reconciliation and economic cooperation with North Korea and met his father in Pyongyang.

As a result of those agreements, billions of dollars of South Korean investment, aid and trade flowed into the North. Billions more were promised in investments in shipyards and factory parks, as the South Korean leaders believed that economic good will was the best way of encouraging North Korea to shed its isolation and hostility while reducing the economic gap between the two Koreas and the cost of reunification in the future. 

But that warming of ties ended when conservatives came to power in Seoul with the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak in 2008. When Mr. Lee was president-elect, North Korea offered a similar overture as Tuesday’s. But Mr. Lee suspended any large aid or investment barring a significant progress toward dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons programs, and inter-Korean relations spiraled down, further aggravated by the North’s shelling of a South Korean island in 2010.  

The incoming leader of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, who is the presidential candidate of Mr. Lee’s governing party, kept the conservatives in power by winning the Dec. 19 election. She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the former military strongman under whose rule from 1961 till 1979 a  staunchly anti-Communist, pro-American political establishment took root in South Korea.

North Korea had engineered a couple of assassination attempts on Ms. Park’s father, one of which resulted in her mother’s death in 1974. But Ms. Park also traveled to Pyongyang in 2002 and discussed inter-Korean reconciliation with Kim Jong-il.

During her campaign for president, she said that if elected, she would decouple humanitarian aid from politics and try to hold a summit meeting with Kim Jong-un. She was in part reacting to widespread criticism in South Korea that Mr. Lee’s hard-line policy did little to change the North’s behavior.

During the campaign, however, Ms. Park stuck to Mr. Lee’s stance on the most contentious issue of large-scale investment, which the North considers crucial.

Ms. Park, like the current president, insisted that any large-scale economic investments be preceded by the “building of trust” through progress in denuclearizing North Korea.

Peace bought with “shoveling” of unrestrained aid under the Sunshine Policy was “a fake,” she said, citing the North’s long history of using military threats to win economic concessions.

North Korea called her a “confrontational maniac” and "fascist." But since her election, it has refrained from attacking her. 

.nytimes.com

31/12/12

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• [EL] Τερματισμό στην κόντρα με τη Νότια Κορέα θέλει να δώσει η Πιονγκγιάνγκ

O βορειοκορεάτης ηγέτης Κιμ Γιονγκ Ουν κάλεσε σήμερα να τεθεί τέρμα στην αναμέτρηση με τη Νότια Κορέα και να υπάρξει μια ριζική στροφή που θα επιτρέψει την ανάδυση ενός "οικονομικού γίγαντα", στο πρώτο πρωτοχρονιάτικο μήνυμα βορειοκορεάτη ηγέτη τα τελευταία 19 χρόνια. Η οικονομική πολιτική πρέπει να επικεντρωθεί στη ριζική αύξηση της παραγωγής και σε βελτιώσεις στις συνθήκες διαβίωσης, ενώ άλλος σημαντικός στόχος είναι η άμβλυνση των εντάσεων με τη Νότια Κορέα, είπε ο αρχηγός του κράτους.

Είναι η πρώτη φορά που βορειοκορεάτης ηγέτης αναγιγνώσκει το μήνυμά του για τη νέα χρονιά από το 1994, όταν ο παππούς του, ο Κιμ Ιλ Σουνγκ, απηύθυνε ομιλία το έτος που απεβίωσε. Εκτοτε το πρωτοχρονιάτικο μήνυμα της ηγεσίας δημοσιοποιείται σε μορφή άρθρου στις εφημερίδες.

"Για να τερματιστεί ο διχασμός της χώρας και να επιτύχουμε την ενοποίηση είναι σημαντικό να σταματήσει η αναμέτρηση ανάμεσα στο βορρά και το νότο", δήλωσε ο νέος ηγέτης του κομμουνιστικού καθεστώτος στο μήνυμα που μεταδόθηκε από την κρατική ραδιοφωνία και την τηλεόραση. "Η ιστορία των ενδοκορεατικών σχέσεων δείχνει ότι η αναμέτρηση μεταξύ συμπατριωτών δεν οδηγεί πουθενά παρά μόνο στον πόλεμο".....................protothema.gr 1/1/12
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• [DE] Nordkorea Kim Jong Un kündigt Ende der Konfrontation an

Nordkoreas Machthaber Kim Jong Un hat sich für einen radikalen Wechsel in der Politik seines seit Jahrzehnten abgeschotteten Landes ausgesprochen. "Es ist wichtig, die Konfrontation zwischen dem Norden und dem Süden zu beenden", sagte Kim Jong Un in seiner Neujahrsbotschaft. So könne "die Teilung des Landes beendet und seine Wiedervereinigung erreicht werden". Die Vergangenheit zeige, dass Konfrontation zwischen Landsleuten zu nichts als Krieg führe.
Weiter erklärte Kim Jong Un zu seinem obersten Ziel für das neue Jahr, die Lebensbedingungen seines Volkes zu verbessern.  2013 werde ein Jahr "großer Schöpfungen und Veränderungen sein, die einen radikalen Umschwung bewirken", sagte er. Nordkorea solle zu einem "wirtschaftlichen Riesen" werden, sagte Kim Jong Un. Die Landwirtschaft und Leichtindustrie stünden dabei im Zentrum.
Der erfolgreiche Start einer Weltraumrakete in Nordkorea im Dezember soll dabei laut Kim Jong Un den Menschen als Ansporn dienen. Die USA, Südkorea und andere Staaten sehen in dem Start am 12. Dezember einen verdeckten Test für die Entwicklung von Interkontinentalraketen, die mit Atomsprengköpfen bestückt werden können. Nordkorea spricht von einem Satellitenstart zu friedlichen Zwecken.
Zugleich sagte Jin Jong Un, das Land könne sich "nur unter der Bedingung entwickeln, dass es seine militärische Macht in allen Bereichen ausbaut". Es sei dringend nötig, bessere Waffen zu konstruieren.
Erste Audiobotschaft seit 1994
Es war die erste Audiobotschaft eines nordkoreanischen Machthabers, seitdem Kim Jong Uns Großvater Kim Il Sung sich im Jahr seines Todes 1994 an die Öffentlichkeit gewandt hatte. Bislang hatte sich Kim Jong Un vor allem über Leitartikel führender, staatlicher Zeitungen zu Wort gemeldet. Kim Jong Un ist seit dem Tod seines Vaters Kim Jong Il im Dezember 2011 im Amt.
Südkorea hatte Mitte Dezember die konservative Politikerin Park Geun Hye als Präsidentin gewählt. Sie distanzierte sich von der harten Linie ihres Vorgängers Lee Myung Bak gegenüber der Regierung in Pjöngjang und sprach sich für eine stärkere Zusammenarbeit aus. Zur Voraussetzung macht sie jedoch einen Verzicht des Nordens auf sein Atomprogramm, was der aber ablehnt. Auffallend an der Neujahrsansprache war, dass genau dieses Atomprogramm keine Erwähnung fand.
Die Beziehungen zwischen den beiden Staaten sind seit dem Koreakrieg in den 1950er Jahren gespannt. Gegen Nordkorea wurden wegen seiner Atomwaffenversuche und Raketentests mehrfach UN-Sanktionen beschlossen. Die Bevölkerung Nordkoreas leidet unter extremer Armut, während die Streitkräfte des Landes zahlenmäßig stark und hochgerüstet sind.
.zeit.de
1/1/13