North Korea’s Unofficial Spokesman Speaks Up

The Asian Times continues to produce some great articles about North Korea. This article about, Kim Myong-chol, a North Korean advocate living in Japan is really interesting.

Meet Kim Myong-chol, perhaps North Korea’s only avid and available Westernized talking head for one of the world’s most mysterious regimes. This very unofficial diplomat is a short, graying, gregarious man of 60 who lives in Japan, talks non-stop and rapid-fire and prefers the United States to Japan, where he now lives. Of course, he loves North Korea, and his mission is to try to educate the world about the Pyongyang government and how people there live, but he does so – despite his pointed messages – in a tactful, friendly manner, not as a shrill, angry polemicist who alienates his audience.

A friendly, warm, North Korean advocate. This guy really is different. Here is a little bit about his views:

Kim said he feels more comfortable in the United States than in Japan, though he did not expand beyond saying that he likes the people and has quite a few friends among US military officers, scholars and university professors. He has no problems with Americans as people – it’s the government policies on the Korean Peninsula and North Asia that he objects to.

Kim frequently delivers sharp messages about the correctness of North Korean policy and what he calls benighted US policy. But he’s no clone of the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He views politics as distinct from people and enjoys engaging the press and pundits on North Korean theory. He has an intimate knowledge of Korean culture and history and how it relates to the current political atmosphere with both Japan and the US.

Kim travels to the US several times a year, giving talks and speeches at universities and think-tanks about North Korea.

I’m not surprised that he is being payed to spread communist ideology in American college campuses. When I was in college I had to listen to a communist preach his views on globalization during a economics class. When he found out I was in the Army reserves he called me a war criminal for various reasons. That guy I found out was payed a $1,500 speaking fee by my university. I’m sure Mr. Kim here is probably raking in something comparable. You got to love communists that use capitalism when it benefits them. Anyway, there is more:

Although he holds Japanese citizenship and lives in Japan, Kim is firmly Korean, attracted to North Korea because of its policy of self-reliance and independence from the outside world. “Why do I like North Korea? Its political will to be independent from all foreigners – from China, from Russia – this is a point that attracts me,” Kim said. “Which is better, hungry wolf or fat dog?”

If he is trying to imply North Korea is a hungry wolf I would have to disagree. North Korea’s leadership are all fat dogs just like Mr. Kim is a fat dog living in Japan.

Kim also believes the US should sign a peace treaty ending the armistice with North Korea.

Kim, who is the executive director of his own organization, the Center for Korean-American Peace, which he founded in 1999, does offer a colorful, impassioned perspective on North Korea and how the country deals with the outside world. Kim says that to make progress on the nuclear issue, the United States must sign a peace treaty with North Korea, officially ending the 51-year-old armistice agreement.

The United States has shunned North Korea’s bid for a bilateral peace treaty with Washington, seeing it as a move by Pyongyang to splinter ties with allied countries who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War. “From the North Korean point of view, unless America is willing to concede on that point, North Korea has no reason to give up nuclear deterrence,” Kim said.

The only way the Norks will get a treaty is by allowing in a bunch of inspectors with unrestricted access to the country. The Norks would never allow this so I wouldn’t count on a treaty any time soon. Here is the scariest part of his rhetoric:

Kim scoffed at the widely quoted US Central Intelligence Agency estimate that North Korea may have one or two functioning nuclear weapons. He said the country has between 100 and 300 weapons based on a nuclear program active since the 1960s. He maintains that it was North Korea that aided Pakistan with its program.

Nuclear weapons, Kim says, are the only way for a small country such as North Korea to balance the scale against the United States. Nuclear weapons are also cheaper than conventional forces, Kim said: an army must be fed, and soldiers could be prone to division.

“For the moment, North Korea sees no sense in selling nuclear technology,” Kim said. “But as long as America remains hostile, we have every reason to sell whatever we have.”

That kind of talk causes US policymakers to bristle: an estranged North Korea aiding terrorist groups with nuclear technology is among the worst imaginable scenarios. Kim Jong-il is unlikely to give up his nuclear card easily even though he wants a peace treaty and diplomatic relations with the United States, Kim Myong-chol asserted.

“Kim Jong-il’s goal,” his unofficial spokesman said, “is to neutralize or nullify the American military presence.”

I cannot imagine North Korea having 100-300 nuclear weapons and if they ever sold one to a terrorist group I cannot believe the US would allow that to happen. I wish the Asia Times would of challenged the guy on the North Korean defector issue and rising anti-Kim Jong Il sentiment in the country with the recent release of anti-Kim Jong Il tapes. I think his answers would be interesting. However, it does appear that this guy is just like every other North Korean advocate, full of hot air; even if he is a friendlier, warmer, talking head.