N. Korea: Three Reasons for Kim Jong-il's Obsession with Nukes--Defector's Take

The Daily NK ^ | 05/01/05 | Han Young-jin, Kim Kwang-soo, Kim Myong-ho

[TigerLikesRooster]

http://www.dailynk.com/korean/read.php?cataId=nk01300&num=4957

/begin my translation

  Three Reasons for Kim Jong-il's Obsession with Nukes: Defector's Take

Regime Survival, Extorting Economic Aids, Keeping People under Control

[ 2005-05-01 19:44 ]

Kim Jong-il touring a command center 
at the Eastern  Front

 We as N. Korean defectors had many times heard in N. Korea , 'N. Korea has nukes.'  We find it really 'silly' when people in the South are engaged in heated debate over the existence of (N. Korean) nukes.

Even today in the South, about N. Korean nukes, some say, "Because the Cold War between U.S. and Soviet Union had ended, N. Korea has nobody to depend on, and they need nukes for self-defense." However, it shows their poor grasp of N. Korean situation. One cannot say it is not part of the reason, however we need to look into various purposes for developing nukes. 

Nukes already Completed

They had already started to develop N. Korean nuclear weapons in 80's before the end of the Cold War. When the first N. Korean nuclear crisis erupted in 1993, the nuclear weapons were already 'completed.' It is just that they did not perform nuclear test to avoid international outcry. If N. Korea started nuclear development only because they felt threatened by the end of the Cold War , the time it took to possess  nukes is too short.

Even with great brain power and developed economy, the research and development of nuclear weapons takes a lot of time and efforts. According to defectors who worked at nuclear facilities, the development started in earnest in 80's, and the preliminary works had already started in 60's. It does not make sense to claim that the nuclear development had started after the fall of Soviet Union.

"Blow up the Earth without N. Korea"

There is an episode well-known among N. Koreans. In 1993, during the first nuclear crisis, Kim Il-sung gathered N. Korean generals and his inner circle, and asked, "Right now U.S. threatens to bomb Yong-byon (nuclear complex) over our nuclear program, what are you going to do in the event of American air strike?" The place had suddenly fell silent so completely that you could hear a pin drop. Then Kim Jong-il rose up and said, 

"Great Leader, it is inconceivable to have the Earth without N. Korea. If it happens, I will blow up the Earth."

Kim Il-sung was so satisfied at the answer that he gave the following lavish praise, "We have another general in our country, general Kim Jong-il. I am proud of having him."

No use for the Earth without N. Korea, so they are going to blow it up? This is a declaration that they would do anything if their absolute dictatorship is threatened. N. Korean nuclear weapons are solely for protecting 'father-son Kim Dynasty.' There are many landmarks and monuments for their personality cult spread all over N. Korea like weeds. They were built for the dream of 'eternal emperor of Korea.' So why would they surrender it without a fight? They need precisely the 'nukes' to protect it. 

Nukes only for Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il

Those outside N. Korea cannot imagine how extensive these propaganda landmarks for personality cult are. If we have to maintain them after the reunification(of Koreas,)  we cannot do it without setting aside (substantial) special funding program inside our national budget.

 Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il keep people ignorant and uninformed in order to continue their life as emperors. They poured in enormous amount of money to build these landmarks. If S. Koreans go to N. Korea after the reunification, they would be stunned.

Kim Jong-il(and Kim Il-sung) built  them to sustain dynastic rule not for a few generations but generations after generations, in uninterrupted wealth and glory. Therefore, even 10 years after Kim Il-sung's death, they dutifully observe 'The Day of Sun'(Kim Il-sung's birthday,) and 'Juche Era'(dating system with Kim's birth year as year zero.) Kim Il-sung bequeathed such a 'monumental legacy' to Kim Jong-il and it would all end if Kim Jong-il surrenders, wouldn't it?

Three Reasons For Kim Jong-il's Possession of Nukes

First, N. Korean authorities want to possess nuke in order to maintain Kim Jong-il regime alive. They reason that nukes will prevent U.S. from meddling and military attacks. This is what they need to continue their dynastic line, safeguard  those monuments all over the country, and their wealth.

Second, they want to extort aids from U.S. and International Communities with S. Korea as their hostage. Right now, N. Korea is holding nukes in the one hand, and imposing military dictatorship on the other hand, while threatening S. Korean government and International Communities.

N. Korean economy has irreversibly collapsed. With raw materials and energy depleted, they cannot recover on their own. Still, N. Korea is now setting out the vision of 'Powerful Great Country.' One of its goals is 'Great Economic Power.' Their plan for developing economy  is to extort cash and other aids from the neighboring country. S. Koreans are so ignorant of this fact.

 Third, they want to eliminate war-weariness among N. Korean population and rally them behind Kim Jong-il. By proclaiming, "Look, we do have nukes, and we are a strong military power. If U.S. would go after us, we can surely hit them back,"  they want to build the perception  that 'General Kim Jong-il will protect us, the ordinary people,' which they hope would help continue to enslave N. Korean people for good. 

During the first nuclear crisis, N. Korean authorities sent out numerous propaganda materials for people to study. The propaganda lecturer repeated the phrases, "No Earth without N. Korea," "Blow up the Earth." Many wondered at the time, "Could we really blow up the Earth?" We suspect that probably, by that time, Kim Jong-il already had nukes produced, or near completion.

Han Young-jin(from Pyongyang, arrived S. Korea in 2002) hyj@dailynk.com
Kim Kwang-soo (from N. Pyongan Province, in 2000)
Kim Myong-ho (from S. Hamkyong Province, in 2002)

/end my translation

[TigerLikesRooster]

One thing people keep ignoring when they deal with N. Korea is how much the regime values the dynastic rule based on personality cult. It is not something they can give up in exchange for generous concession from others.

Especially, the nukes have become symbol for the power of this particular state cult. No nuke, no power, no regime. The credibility of regime revolves around it. It is amazing how people continue to ignore this point. Some are even under the misguided conceit that ignoring it is the enlightened intelligent thing to do, therefore embarking on a wrong path at the very start when they try to resolve this nuclear crisis.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[JustDoItAlways]

You don't need nuclear weapons to "blow up the earth."

A good biological weapon could wipe us out in a few months.

[Waco]

Boy, Kerry will really be PO'd if they beat him to it.

[risk]

This makes sense to me. We can blame past American presidents all we like, but the North Korean defector's assertion that nuclear development ties back to the 1960s rings true. In the presidential blame game, Hillary is blaming this administration, which is true irony.

My favorite part: reunification with South Korea will incur great cost to maintaining just the monuments to the Kim Jong Il dynasty's monuments alone, unless the dynasty isn't part of the deal.

I'm aware that peacenik/leftist South Koreans do think that reunification is a good idea, and the defector is homing straight in on them. Good!

[Wuli]

Thanks for another great post on this vital region of the world. Let us pray that South Korea keeps it's backbone. I fear that the appeasement mentality is being promoted extensively as the "moderate" thing to do, and that it breeds greater and greater impetus to seek accomodation with the North as the way to avoid war. What I fear is being ignored in the South too much is that such accomodation is, to the leaders in the North, simply war by non-military means. Ronald Reagan showed that communists will not commit suicide. Constant, never ending, steady pressure increases their internal contradictions and they will implode. Appease them and their fifth column of helpers within your culture will grow to the point where the people are convinced they should become good Marxists too.

[MizSterious]

Chilling. Destroy the world rather than give up nukes...(shaking head)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #6

It is a sickening spectacle that feel-good inane people are going around as if they knew all the right answers to these serious problems. They also have groupies around them. Politicians pander to them.

If I point out to them that this is all wrong, they say it is the 'Zeitgeist.' Yeah, Zeitgeist in a tea pot called S. Korea. A political bubble where people feel for now that everything is taken care of and everything is alright. The bubble will not last. Zeitgeist would turn into a mirage. In Korean peninsula, if you make a mistake, external forces would not allow you to go scot-free for long.

People have got somewhat unnerved because of long economic recession at its third year. But they are still out of it. It will be a traumatic awakening when this thing blows over, even without a shooting war. I am not going to console them. They need some serious pain to deter them from doing stupid things again in their life.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Kinda' makes you wonder now if it wouldn't have been far better to have FIRST taken out that fat little bastard two years ago, before we did in that bearded rat we found in a spider holedown in Iraq. At least the latter had nowhere near the nuke/ICBM threat capability and considerably motivated men under arms, as the former--it seems.

[trek]

"It is a sickening spectacle that feel-good inane people are going around as if they knew all the right answers to these serious problems. They also have groupies around them."

How dare you speak of President Carter and Madeline Albright like that.

[Guillermo]

bump

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #9

Yeah, it is a tempting thought.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #10

Don't leave out Bill Clinton.

[Drammach]

So, in reality, a minimum of 40 years of nuclear weapons research and development.. probably more..

Once again, the "personality cult" theme is pointed out..
We have seen enough of that in the last century, with Saddam, Khomenei, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Hitler..
Those that are successful in the personality cult game are usually extremely dangerous..

I question the idea of an underground test..
A "public" test would be more to the liking of Kim...
He will wish the world to know, without doubt that he has "the power"..
He will then run away to hide in his little "greyskull castle"..

[virgil]

Despite all appearances, I think China is behind N.Korea. K-J-Il is China's bad boy and right now he is useful to them. When he's no longer useful, he'll disappear. Its China. Never forget that it is China that wants hegemony in the Pacific and like leftists they can be very patient about it. A little confrontation in Japan or India and a little agitation in S.Korea and the Philipines...push...yield...push, then go in for the kill.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #14

No doubt the above-ground test would be spectacular. However, its fallout would spread all over N. Korea and beyond. It will create the same panic Chernobyl created in Soviet Union. It would topple the regime. So Kim may have no choice but to do it underground.

And I agree with your point about those good at personality cult being extremely dangerous.

[SevenofNine]

You know what if Chia Pet Kim want nukes he going be so roaney if he decided launch them

[Wuli]

I understand your sentiment and I hold no favor with China, but I disagree on the extent to which China is "behind" the North Korean regime.

The history of the Norh Korean regime - its leadership, its economic and intellectual backing - came from the USSR, not China, not Mao. Kim Il Sung was educated in the USSR and sent back into the border area between Manchuria and Korea toward the end of WWII. It was agents of the USSR that built the party network for Kim in Korea and it was on orders of Stalin that Kim was sent to consolidate control of the party as the Japanese were leaving. His military exploits against the Japanese are communist myths. China entered the picture in a major way only with the Korean war. After the armistice the USSR remained N. Korea's major ally. If China was as much "behind" North Korea today, it would not be so poor, it would be integrating more with the economy of "modern" China. That does not happen because Kim Jong Il does not even want to open North Korea to what's going on in China, economically. He, not China, is very much in control and that control is everything to him.

No. The North Korean communist regime, at this point, is very much an indingenous Korean creation. China is an ally of N. Korea and certainly does not want a Korea that is united under a democratic South. Neither does it want another Korean war; so, it is not likely to appreciate the North starting one. But, it prefers the present stalemate more than anything else so it would rather help prop up a dead body in the north.

The only thing that will actually move China to attempt to gain greater influence in North Korea is the nuclear weapons situation. If it is not resolved, with the Norh giving up its nuclear weapons developments, and the North moves to completed nuclear explosion tests and ICBM missle tests, then China will be faced with the prospect of Japan and S. Korea becoming nuclear states also. That is the only prospect that I can see that would move China to try to control the regime in the north.

Baring that, China prefers the stalement and continued international belligerance between the U.S., Japan, S. Korea vs N. Korea. The stalemate, not a military campaign from the North, is China's preferred Korean situation. We need to call their bluff and let them see the prospect of more Asian nuclear states developing in their neighborhood. Then they might actually become partners with Japan and South Korea against the North, diplomatically at least. That could be the nail that implodes Kim Jong Il's coffin.

[LibertarianInExile]

Obligatory Ronery comment, Team America pic:

[SevenofNine]

You know what I think we see more of Kim in Team America when come on DVD LOL!