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Blue House

While North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for military talks between North and South Korean and emphasized “denuclearization of the world” during the 7th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), on May 8 the Blue House and related ministries mostly disparaged the party congress as representing neither progress nor sincerity.

On Sunday, the Blue House did not take an official position in regard to the business summation report that Kim delivered during the party congress. Off the record, though, senior officials dismiss the report as “North Korea’s typical ‘good cop, bad cop’ strategy.”

In regard to Kim’s description of North Korea as a “responsible nuclear weapon state” and its “efforts to bring about denuclearization of the world,” a senior official at the Blue House said, “‘Denuclearization of the world’ is meaningless since this presumes that the world’s nuclear weapon states will take steps to denuclearize. The comment appears to have been designed to bolster North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapon state.”

The official also responded negatively to Kim’s proposal for dialogue between the North and South Korean militaries. “As long as there is no real change in North Korea, it’s pointless to sit down for talks,” the official said.

The Blue House regards North Korea’s conciliatory remarks as being aimed at breaking out of its isolation as it faces increasing external pressure over its nuclear pressure, with China turning the screw and Russia talking about imposing sanctions.

The South Korean government made an official response on Sunday afternoon in a statement by the Unification Ministry’s spokesperson.

“Our refusal to accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state is consistent with the position of the international community. North Korea’s mention of dialogue and negotiations for improving inter-Korean relations even as it continues to develop nuclear weapons and to carry out threats and provocations is nothing more than a completely insincere propaganda offensive,” the statement said. This leaves no room for a positive response.

“We are keeping a close eye on the possibility of North Korea carrying out a fifth nuclear test or some other provocation during the party congress,” said a senior Blue House official.

But the fact that the South Korean government did not officially reject Kim’s proposal for military talks merits further observation. “We do not regard this as an official proposal for talks. When we receive an official proposal, we will make our decision,” a South Korean government official said.

By Choi Hye-jung and Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporters

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