Posted on 05/08/2003 2:43:39 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
(Translated from Original Korean): "Interview With Mr. Kim Duk Hong, High Ranking North Korean Defector"
Kim Duk Hong is one of the highest ranking officials to defect from North Korea. He escaped from North Korea in 1997, first to Beijing and then to Seoul, along with Hwang Jang Yop, the architect of the North Korea regime's ideology known as "Juche," meaning "self reliance." Kim was Hwang's assistant for many years. He is officially barred from talking to the press by the (appeasing) South Korean government, however, FRONTLINE obtained this exclusive interview at an undisclosed location in South Korea. The interview was conducted in Korean and has been translated.
Q: Why did you defect?
When I was 20 years old, I realized something was wrong with North Korea. Only people who had connections could succeed in that society. I was thinking of defecting as far back as 1958.
Q: So you waited more than 40 years before defecting. Why did you take so long?
Before I left, I studied Marxism and Communism. I realized that Kim Jong Il's government is following Marxism literally. At this time, I thought that someone should speak up about this, so I did.
Q: Did you have contact with Kim Jong Il?
It is really hard to contact him. Even people who live in the same area, they report to him and respond to him by fax only. He barely speaks, only at a few parties. A middle class person like me hardly gets a chance to see him.
Q: How did Kim Jong Il control the country?
He controls his administration exclusively. It operates absolutely by his word. It's an autocracy. Although people have been suffering for 50 years, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il used to be like gods. Kim Il Sung used to kill people who didn't like his administration, but nobody blamed him. People thought that it was politicians' fault, not his fault. People have begun to realize that Kim Jong Il is wrong, he is killing people.
Q: From the Clinton administration's point of view, they were able to negotiate a freeze of the nuclear plant at Yongbyon. Didn't that slow the nuclear program?
Of course, I think the Clinton administration was great. The United States solved the problem peacefully. It was historic. [But the North Koreans] resumed the development of nuclear weapons as soon as they signed the Geneva Agreed Framework, even before the ink dried on the paper.
In 1995, the national military industry secretariat went to Pakistan to trade skills in exchange for producing nuclear weapons. They sent engineers to Pakistan after they signed for Geneva Agreed Framework in 1994. They began to talk about nuclear weapons with Pakistan 1995. It is true.
Q: Do you believe that Clinton administration was naive in dealing with Kim Jong Il?
First of all, I think that they didn't know North Korea, Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il. That was their big mistake.
Q: What is Kim Jong Il's ambition?
Firstly he wants to have nuclear weapons. My complaint is that the United States gives North Korea time to work on developing weapon programs. Kim Jong Il doesn't care that people are starving and poor. He spent almost all the money on nuclear weapons.
That's why I'm here. I defected to speak out about the starvation. I left my family, friends, and comrades in North Korea. I don't think that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are human beings. He's working only for his own ambitions, only for himself. If he had a sense of humanity, he wouldn't be this kind of leader.
Q: (The Bush) administration in Washington is taking a tougher line in North Korea. Do you think is it proper?
I think that Bush knows how to treat Kim Jong Il. Don't trust Kim Jong Il, never, ever. What Kim Jong Il is doing is producing nuclear weapons to kill people in the world, and providing expertise in nuclear weapon development to countries which are anti-American.
He kills our people, arrests people who are against his administration. He produces drugs. It's a national industry. He kidnaps other people from South Korea, or other democratic countries. He is doing all sorts of bad things, like the devil. Do not trust him, never, ever.
Q: What do you believe the United States can do prevent North Koreans from acquiring weapons?
The only way is to kill Kim Jong Il. Possessing nuclear weapons is not dangerous. But the fact that Kim Jong Il has weapons is dangerous. I think that's why the Bush administration treats Kim Jong Il the way they do. Some people believe the problem can be solved by removing nuclear weapons in Yongbyon. However, if Kim Jong Il is still alive, he will make bombs again. I think that President Bush knows him. He is the only one who understands who Kim Jong Il is.
Q: But there are others who are critics of the Bush administration who believe that Kim Jong Il will be willing to deal away the nuclear program. Do you disagree with this?
I think two things: People who have never experienced their children or relatives being kidnapped from Japan or somewhere else and taken to North Korea, and then killed by Kim Jong Il, they say, "Peace, peace." People without knowledge about North Korea criticize without knowing.
Q: What policy do you suggest? Is war the only way to remove Kim Jong Il from power?
I think the Bush administration is right in being anti-North Korea. Blocking their economy, it's [a] good way.
The Marxists in this country know they have to do it incrementaly and are doing it as fast as they can. The loss of individual freedoms in this country the last 20 yrs is unreal. The increase in rules and regulations is becoming a burden to business and individuals.
To have an organization like Democratic Socialists of America, in Congress, should raise some eyebrows. With a copy of The Communist Manifesto in hand, pay a visit to their website sometime and compare it to their mission statement.
Search the FR archives and go to the library. SA is getting close to the commie ideal. You do know that all communist leaders don't always agree? Lenin and Trotsky had a big clash on how to build paradise. Trotsky was in Mexico when he "accidently" took an axe to the head.
It's late so Good... Night.
Got something else for you... hang on.
In pictures: Mrs Albright's visit
Monday, 23 October, 2000, 18:33 GMT 19:33 UK
North Korea is taking the first steps towards a new era after five decades of hostility, with a visit by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
A smiling Kim Jong-il said he was "really happy" to meet a US official for the first time
But the two looked tense during the official photocall
Mrs Albright delighted children by joining in their dance at a welcome ceremony
The US guest was taken along largely deserted streets on a tour of the capital
Sailors performed a dance routine with flags for the North Korean leader and Mrs Albright at a stadium in Pyongyang
Thousands of dancers celebrated the US secretary of state's visit
Across the border in South Korea broadcasters broke into their schedules to show live pictures of Mrs Albright's historic visit
Can you imagine Colin Powell standing up in a stadium and dancing for a dictator's charade parade of children?
After some years of living in East Asia, I reconciled mutual contradictions a long time ago and determined them to be parts of the whole truth, even if contradictory (the whole 'yin' & 'yang' kind of thing). An Asian business colleague can preface his "I think I'll just pass on the cocktails in the lobby bar and go get some sleep if you don't mind", even after he has just told you that he is very well rested and full of energy after the long flight and happy to have landed in America).
That is why I tend to agree that in an Asian context, as with another Freeper here, that we can sign a meaningless bilateral piece of paper with the Chia-ites, and yet behind the scenes, continue to do everything to subvert Kim Jong il, create/nurture/fortify a domestic fifth column there. (My only concern would be the larger, Western ramifications of such double dealings). We could seek to remove Kim Jong il by social upheaval, and/or by coup d'etat betrayal by the inner circles, by interests that could be controlled by the West and eventually co-opted into a larger plan of peaceful, staged reunification with the South. This, IMHO, would be much more advisable than a full scale, head-on military onslaught by US forces against Pyongyang (the Korean People's Army and particularly their thousands of suicide commandos will not throw down their weapons and run like the Republican Guards)--although of course we should never take THAT option off the US-DPRK table, either.
Exactly right - That kind of thinking is what got us into a lot of this mess -
Remember when Al Gore signed the Kyoto accords ? ...
... or when his boss signed that peace plan that they are now trying to use as a "pardon" for the terrorist ?
I know exactly what you mean "in an Asian context", but while the paper means nothing to the other side in this case ( they know how the game is played also ) everything we do will be looked at and pointed to the next time we make agreements with, say Peru, or Kuwait or Ireland.
The only gain from this would be for the other side, who can show it as a sign that they "stared into the face of the tiger, and he backed away".
Pyongyang Pete will get more ammunition either way.
( got to buy you a drink next time over !)
You missed my point. Your ideas scream "Weakness." Bush is not weak like clinton. There will be no non-aggression pact.
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