Kim Jong-un: "Unification with South Korean Entities Will Not Succeed"... Firmly Defines Them as a 'Hostile State'

Presenting a Fundamental Directional Shift in the Southern Policy Sector

Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, defined inter-Korean relations not as a 'kinship relationship' but as a 'hostile relationship between two states,' expressing the view that unification with the Republic of Korea cannot be achieved.

Chairman Kim made this statement at the fifth day meeting of the Workers' Party plenary session held on the 30th, according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 31st. Kim said, "It is not befitting of our national dignity and status to discuss unification issues with strange tribes who are nothing but colonial puppets of the United States, just because of the rhetorical expression that we are kin," adding, "Inter-Korean relations have completely solidified into a hostile relationship between two states, two belligerent countries at war, rather than a kinship or homogeneous relationship."

The year-end plenary meeting held by the Bank of Korea since the 26th was concluded on the 30th, and Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, delivered a report and distributed the concluding documents to members of the Party Central Leadership, according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 31st.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

He stated, "It is a well-known fact that any minor accidental factor in the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) area, where vast bilateral forces are confronting each other, can cause physical clashes and escalate into a full-scale conflict," and "No one can deny that the two most hostile states coexist on the Korean Peninsula today."

Chairman Kim explained, "For more than half a century, not just ten years, the ideas, lines, and policies for national reunification put forth by our Party and the government of the Republic (North Korea) have always been the most just, rational, and fair, garnering absolute support and approval from the entire nation and sympathy from the world, yet none of them have borne complete fruit, and inter-Korean relations have repeatedly gone through a vicious cycle of contact and suspension, dialogue and confrontation."

He said, "If there is one common point that runs through the 'North Korea policies' and 'unification policies' brought forth by successive South Korean rulers, it is our 'regime collapse' and 'absorption unification.' Although the puppet regime has changed more than ten times, the policy of 'unification under a liberal democratic system' has remained unchanged without the slightest alteration."

Chairman Kim added, "The vicious ambition of the puppets to collapse our system and regime was no different whether they claimed to be 'democratic' or wore the mask of 'conservatism,'" emphasizing, "Looking back on the long-standing inter-Korean relations, the overall conclusion reached by our Party is that unification can never be achieved with those in the Republic of Korea who have set 'absorption unification' and 'system unification,' which starkly contradict our national reunification line based on one nation, one state, and two systems, as national policy."

He stated, "It is now necessary to recognize reality and clarify relations with those in South Korea more explicitly," adding, "It is a mistake we must no longer make to regard those who have declared us as the 'main enemy' and colluded with foreign forces, only seeking opportunities for 'regime collapse' and 'absorption unification,' as partners for reconciliation and unification."

The Korean Central News Agency evaluated Kim Jong Un's statement by saying, "Based on a cold analysis of the bitter history of inter-Korean relations marked only by distrust and confrontation, a fundamental shift in direction in the southern sector has been proposed."