PYONGYANG: Kim keen to re-open lines of communication with Seoul - Analysis
By GEO´ Newsteam with Analysis by Iain Fraser - GEO´ Reportage Editor, Gibraltar
www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has mooted his willingness to restore communications with Seoul in an effort to try and drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting on Thursday at the request of the United States, United Kingdom and France on North Korea’s recent tests.
The move is seen by observers as a clear attempt to secure Seoul's support to secure relief from crippling U.S. led economic sanctions and other concessions in the week that saw a series missile tests, the first for six months.
Kim also seized the opportunity to turn up the rhetoric and reiterate his criticism of United States dismissing offers from Washington to restart dialogue with Washington, the first for the Biden administration, as “cunning ways” to conceal its hostility against the North.
During his address, Kim said the restoration in early October of cross-border hotlines — which have been largely dormant for more than a year — would realize the Korean people’s wishes for a peace between the two Koreas, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim still accused South Korea of being “bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamouring for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S.,” rather than committing to resolving the matters independently between the Koreas.
Kim repeated his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong’s calls for Seoul to abandon “double-dealing attitude” and “hostile viewpoint” over the North’s missile tests and other developments, saying the fate of inter-Korean ties is at a critical juncture. Some experts say North Korea is pressuring South Korea to tone down its criticism of its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, as part of its quest to receive an international recognition as a nuclear power. Learn More/...
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