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Hardliner behind multiple attacks on S. Korean military returns to N. Korean politics
  来源:铜川市某某化工客服中心  更新时间:2024-11-02 20:21:12
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un,<strong></strong> left, and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Committee, attend an extended bilateral meeting with their U.S. counterparts during the second Washington-Pyongyang summit in the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, in this Feb. 28, 2019, file photo. Kim Yong-chol, a hardliner blamed for multiple attacks on South Korea, has returned to the center stage of North Korean politics, state media reported Monday. Reuters-Yonhap
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, left, and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Committee, attend an extended bilateral meeting with their U.S. counterparts during the second Washington-Pyongyang summit in the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, in this Feb. 28, 2019, file photo. Kim Yong-chol, a hardliner blamed for multiple attacks on South Korea, has returned to the center stage of North Korean politics, state media reported Monday. Reuters-Yonhap

Pyongyang reveals satellite launch failure to public at major party event

By Jung Min-ho

A former top-level spy and military general who was behind multiple attacks against the South Korean military has returned to the center stage of North Korean politics.

Kim Yong-chol, who is believed to have been in command of the attacks on the ROKS Cheonan corvette and a South Korean island in 2010 as well as a 2015 landmine explosion on the southern side of the DMZ, was elected as an alternative member of the political bureau of its ruling Workers' Party of Korea, state media reported Monday.

According to the Rodong Sinmun, a mouthpiece of the party, Kim, who disappeared from the political spotlight after the fruitless end of the 2019 U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi, also became an adviser of the United Front Department, which handles inter-Korean strategies, in the latest reshuffle of officials after a party plenary meeting that ended Sunday.

His return may not mean that he will replace Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, or Ri Son-gwon, head of the propaganda department, immediately as Pyongyang's chief messenger to Seoul, but experts believe it clearly indicates North Korea's unchanging ― perhaps strengthening ― hardline stance.

"At 77, Kim Yong-chol may be too old to lead that role any longer. I think he will most likely use his experience to back up Kim Yo-jong and Ri Son-gwon, and this is not good news for those hoping for improvements in inter-Korean relations," Oh Gyeong-seob, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a think tank, told The Korea Times.

"He was forced to leave politics after being deeply involved in the regime's diplomatic effort to improve ties with the U.S. But apparently, he is still trusted by his boss."

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, agreed.

"Kim Yong-chol is a well-known expert on South Korea. He is expected to attend important meetings and share his expertise to increase pressure on South Korea with official messages and criticism," Yang said in a statement sent to reporters.

However, given that the economy was the main focus at the eighth plenary meeting of the party's eighth central committee, experts said his return does not necessarily mean an increase in North Korea's aggression toward the South or its allies.

"With its economy in bad shape and increasing political pressure from it, North Korea may have more things to consider if it, say, is to conduct another major military provocation," Oh said. "I think the probability is not high. But, as it did many times in the past, it could try to turn the public attention to South Korea as a means of uniting the country and consolidating the party control."

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, left, and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Committee, attend an extended bilateral meeting with their U.S. counterparts during the second Washington-Pyongyang summit in the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, in this Feb. 28, 2019, file photo. Kim Yong-chol, a hardliner blamed for multiple attacks on South Korea, has returned to the center stage of North Korean politics, state media reported Monday. Reuters-Yonhap
Koo Byung-sam, spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Unification, speaks during a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

The assessment is in line with that of the Ministry of Unification, which also warned that Pyongyang is maintaining its eye-for-an-eye stance against Seoul and Washington and may try to find something to blame them for if it feels doing so would be politically beneficial.

Speaking to reporters, Koo Byung-sam, the ministry's spokesman, also said the latest event was unusual for two reasons ― the absence of Kim Jong-un's speech and the admission of failure to the general public after the recent satellite rocket launch attempt.

"Given that its satellite launch failed and that there have been few achievements in any of the areas, including the economy, we believe that it may have been difficult (for Kim) to come directly to the front," the spokesman said.

A spy satellite is among several high-tech military assets Kim publicly vowed to develop. The North said it will continue pushing to acquire a space-based surveillance system.




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