hankyoreh

Vice Minister Seo Hong-chan

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sounded a “people first” message in his speech at a military parade to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Workers‘ Party, using the Korean term for “the people” ninety times in his remarks.

In contrast, he avoided any mention of the word for “nuclear,” in what appeared to be a gesture of concern for improving Pyongyang’s foreign relations. The speech was read overall as a sign of Kim’s commitment to ushering an era of his own with “people first” as a governing philosophy.

The South Korean Ministry of Unification issued a “General Assessment of the North Korean Workers’ Party Seventieth Anniversary Military Parade” on Oct. 11, noting that Kim had “emphasized the Workers’ Party ‘people first philosophy’ and dedicated the majority of his remarks to emphasizing his love for the people.”

The report also said Kim had “emphasized valuing the people, the military, and the young.”

The speech began with an expression of “deepest thanks to the people” and ended with an appeal for “all of us to serve selflessly for the great people of this country.”

“His implication was that if [grandfather] Kim Il-sung’s era was ‘party first’ and [father] Kim Jong-il’s era was ‘military first,’ then he plans to adopt ‘people first’ as a governing philosophy for the Kim Jong-un era,” said University of North Korean Studies professor Yang Moo-jin.

“He’s signaling that he is going to make improving the people‘s lives the country’s supreme goal,” Yang added.

Kim also avoided using the word for “nuclear” anywhere in his remarks, despite the occasion being a military parade. Notably, he substituted the term “developing the economy and national defense together” for a previous message calling for “developing nuclear capabilities and the economy together” -- a change that could be motivated by hopes of improving ties with Beijing.

The absence of any particular mention of inter-Korean relations in Kim’s speech was taken as a sign that he hopes to carry forward the momentum from a agreement reached with Seoul on August 25. By omitting any specific mention of the South, Kim was picking up where he left off with remarks about the agreement during an extended meeting of the Workers’ Party central military commission on Aug. 28, analysts said.

“We need to turn a disaster into a blessing by valuing this agreement and cultivating it to bear rich fruit,” Kim said at the time.

Kim denounced Washington in relatively mild terms during the speech, saying North Korea “can face any war of any kind that the American empire desires.”

“A spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry made a formal proposal on Oct. 7 to sign a peace agreement with the US, so we may end up seeing Pyongyang working next to improve relations with Washington if things improve with Beijing and Seoul,” said Kim Keun-sik, a professor of political science and international relations at Kyungnam University.

No notable changes were observed in the senior-level representation in the parade’s VIP section. Kim’s younger sister Yo-jong was briefly seen behind the section, suggesting that she is a major player in the regime despite her relatively low status as deputy director of the Worker’s Party propaganda and agitation department. General political bureau director Kim Yong-chol also appeared in the VIP section, showing that he is still in good standing after previous rumors that he was disciplined in connection with an Aug. 4 landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone.

Experts were divided on the estimated cost of the parade preparations. Cho Bong-hyun, a senior researcher at the IBK Economic Research Institute, estimated the cost at “one to two trillion won (US$87 million-1.74 billion), or about one-third of North Korea’s yearly budget.”

In contrast, Kim Keun-sik said the “net costs of the parade after subtracting missile development and construction expenses would have been on the order of a few tens of billions of won.”

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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