N. Korea: How to Deal With Kim (Hwang warms up for his American tour)

In a rare interview, the North’s highest-ranking defector offers his advice on handling the ‘Great Leader’

Aug. 11 issue — In 1997, Hwang Jang Yop, former secretary of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, startled the world by becoming the highest-ranking official ever to defect from the Hermit Kingdom. The architect of North Korea’s ideology of juche, or self-reliance, Hwang was once a close aide to the late Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il.

SIX YEARS SINCE his defection to the South, he may visit the United States for the first time this fall to testify before Congress. His counsel may be especially valuable now. Last week Washington and Pyongyang announced that they had agreed to hold six-way talks—China, Japan, Russia and South Korea will also be included—over the nuclear standoff. In an exclusive interview Hwang met with NEWSWEEK’s Hideko Takayama in Seoul to discuss the tensions with Pyongyang. Excerpts:

Very intersting article. Hwang makes some very good points, and is in a unique position to offer advice to us.

If the United States and China are united strongly, Japan and South Korea will follow, and so will Russia. Pyongyang will have no other choice. You have to understand that the Chinese reform policy does not allow the existence of a “Great Leader” dictatorship.

Kim is egotistical in ways that most Westerners have a hard time grasping. Being a 'Great Leader' is unalterably part of his mentality. He will not give it up unless he has absolutely no choice. This is not to say that it is totally inconcievable that he would abdicate his position, but that he would literally have to have no other options.

He has a constituency to deal with. They are not the people of North Korea, however. They are the elites that form the nervous system of the regime. As loyal as he demands they are, his command is less absolute than it may appear. So long as he has a viable play (i.e. exact concessions from the world via nuclear blackmail) then they wouldn't dare resist him.

If he is unable to be effective in this, they may not follow him into oblivion, or obey orders that would ammount to suicide. Under enough pressure, he may realize that he is beaten, and accept living in luxurious exile instead of swinging from a lamppost.

As it is now, there are far too many gaps in the line. I very much agree with Hwang that if we can tighten the noose enough, we can force both Kim and the ruling class to fold. He may be willing to die rather than surrender, but survival is the national virtue of North Korea. He's got a life of power and privilige to lose, whereas most people, even the elites, have had to fear for their lives for a long, long time.

Re #4

So long as he has a viable play (i.e. exact concessions from the world via nuclear blackmail) then they wouldn't dare resist him.

If he is unable to be effective in this, they may not follow him into oblivion, or obey orders that would ammount to suicide.

This is the aspect a lot of outsiders tend to miss. Kim Jong-il has to pull the extortion routine to show other elites that he can deliver. Kim can claim that his policy feeds them and keep N. Korea as a power to be reckoned with even under a disastrous economic condition. If he failed to deliver, then there is no rationale to follow him any more.

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