North Korean Leader Takes a Defiant Stance as He Visits Border

NY Times ^ | 3/4/2012 | Cheo Sang-Hun

[U-238]

In a visit to the heavily armed border with the South, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, ordered his troops on higher alert, escalating his militaristic language in spite of American calls to improve ties with the Seoul just a week after his country agreed to a nuclear freeze in return for badly needed food aid. .Mr. Kim has been hailed as the North’s leader since the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December, and has frequently visited frontline military units. But his trip to Panmunjon, a compound straddling the border where the armistice ending the Korean War was signed in 1953, was the first time he had put himself in full view — and within the range — of South Korean border guards.

“If there is a fight erupting, our military and people will have the enemy kneeling before us to sign not a truce this time but a document of surrender,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s official news agency. The agency did not say when the visit occurred; South Korean officials said he made the trip on Saturday.

[2ndDivisionVet]

When I was stationed there (1978-79 and 1981-82) we "joked" that we were there to keep the ROKs from invading the North. That was before the South became economic, technological and military powerhouse that it is today. This is all a sick joke, a shakedown. I'm guessing that at least half of the Western aid to the DPRK goes into NGO and diplomats Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts.

[U-238]

I'm guessing that at least half of the Western aid to the DPRK goes into NGO and diplomats Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts.

I agree

[U-238]

Or banks in China.

[Jonty30]

More likely China.

It’s not as though they can leave NorK, when they retire.

[U-238]

I would include European banks.

[Jonty30]

Mmmmm.

You’re probably right. Europeans are amongst the most hypocritical.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

“improved ties with the Seoul”?

[AmericanInTokyo]

It would have been funny if somehow Fat Bastard KJU, son of Chia Pet, had attempted to evade his guards and make a quick sprint across the MDL into the South to defect. He probably knows the buffet table is much more scrumptious down there in Seoul than up there in Pyongyang. He might have been tempted, only I doubt he could spring and Fiships probably would have ordered KPA guards to discharge their sidearms on that lard ass.

[Timocrat]

I see the cretins in the State Department have concluded yet another “agreement” with the North Koreans by which they make promises which they have absolutely no intention of keeping and we pay to feed their armed forces.