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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gives his New Year’s address at the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) headquarters in Pyongyang on Jan. 1. (Yonhap News)

In his New Year’s address on Jan. 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un emphasized his firm commitment to complete denuclearization while also making clear his intention to participate in a second summit with the US. This is taken to indicate a proactive willingness to speed up the currently stalled negotiations between North Korea and the US over denuclearization and normalizing relations. At the same time, Kim made a veiled warning to the US, noting that he might seek a “new way” if the US keeps up its sanctions and pressure aimed at forcing the North to submit to unilateral denuclearization.

“I am prepared to sit down again with the American president at any time in the future, and I will strive to create results that the international community will welcome,” Kim said during his address, which was broadcast on Korean Central Television (KCT) on Tuesday morning.

“Establishing new relations between our two countries, building a permanent and firm peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, and moving toward complete denuclearization is the unchanging position of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the DPRK government, and it’s something to which I’m firmly committed,” Kim went on to say, quoting the joint declaration released by North Korea and the US on June 12, 2018.

Kim was seeking to dispel doubts about North Korea by openly accepting the proposal for a second North Korea-US summit and by reconfirming his commitment to implement the North Korea-US joint declaration.

In this year’s address, there were no traces of the provocative language that Kim employed last year, such as the “completion of the state nuclear force,” “mass production and deployment of nuclear warheads and rockets” and “the nuclear button.” While “nuclear weapons” were mentioned 22 times in last year’s address, this time they only appeared two times by way of expressing Kim’s commitment to denuclearization, and North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and nuclear deterrent were only described as a “firm guarantee for the defense of our autonomy and of peace and prosperity.”

“We have already declared to audiences at home and abroad that we will no longer make or test nuclear weapons or use or disseminate them, and we have taken several practical steps along those lines,” Kim said in one notable passage of his address. While it’s unclear whether this means that North Korea is suspending its production of nuclear weapons, this can at least be interpreted as meaning that the North would accept a “nuclear freeze.”

At the same time, Kim made the request that “the US would respond to our leading and preemptive efforts by taking corresponding actions that are credible and meaningful.” Considering that North Korea has insisted that corresponding measures by the US, such as easing sanctions, are a prerequisite for progress in negotiations, it’s striking that Kim didn’t ask the US to take the first steps in this address. Kim did say that if the US continues to put pressure and sanctions on North Korea to force its unilateral denuclearization, “we may find ourselves left with no choice but to seek a new way to defend the autonomy of the nation and the supreme interests of the state and to achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

While this was a warning that the North could pivot to a “Plan B” if the negotiations failed, it was couched in extremely roundabout language (“we may find ourselves left with no choice but to”).

In addition to this, Kim called for the end of joint military exercises between South Korea and “foreign powers” (namely, the US) and for the US to completely stop bringing strategic assets and weapons of war to the Korean Peninsula. He also promised to promote multilateral negotiations aimed at creating a peace regime, and announced his willingness to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and to resume tourism to Mt. Kumgang.

“Kim clarified the positions he had expressed in 2018 about regime security, a peace regime and inter-Korean relations, which suggests that he will move forward with all three simultaneously in a virtuous cycle,” said Lee Gwan-se, director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.

The New Year’s address is being taken as a “green light” from North Korea. Though it contained a warning about a “new way,” it was unclear if this meant a return to the “two-track” line of developing nuclear weapons and the economy. Furthermore, the cautious phrasing of that warning makes it clear that the address was focused on dialogue.

Overall, a former senior official in the South Korean government said, “North Korea has indicated that it intends to move.”

In a statement, Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum said that Kim’s address “expressed his desire for the development of inter-Korean relations and for progress in North Korea-US relations.”

But since North Korea didn’t openly promise to make the first move, there may not be enough drive left to speed up North Korea-US negotiations, others suggest.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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