North Korea’s latest reference to South Korea by using the South’s full name, the Republic of Korea (ROK), appears aimed at making official a shift in its policy into dealing with inter-Korean ties as a state-to-state relationship, observers said.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, used “the ROK” in her hard-worded statements issued Monday and Tuesday for condemning U.S. surveillance flights over its exclusive economic zone.
“The military gangsters of the ‘ROK’ should stop acting impudently and shut up at once,” she said in a Tuesday statement carried by the North’s state-run news agency.
It marked the first time that Pyongyang used South Korea’s full name in its official statements slamming South Korea, according to Seoul’s unification ministry. The North has long called the South “south Korea” or “the south Korean puppet.”
Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, said Kim’s mentioning of the ROK seems to be part of North Korea’s policy of pursuing the “two states scheme.”
“As North Korea argued the issue of U.S. surveillance flights is a matter between Pyongyang and Washington, the North appears to stress it will not deal with South Korea when it comes to issues related to the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
Under an inter-Korean basic agreement signed in 1991, inter-Korean ties were designated as a “special relationship” tentatively formed in the process of seeking reunification, not as a state-to-state relation.
North Korea has preached for the notion of “Uriminzokkiri,” which roughly translates into “among our own people” in handling inter-Korean affairs and the issue of reunification.
Hong Min, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Korea’s push to expand its nuclear arsenal appears to lie behind the secretive regime’s move to newly define its relationship with the South.
“Pyongyang has been pursuing the stated goal of developing tactical nuclear weapons targeting the South. Against this backdrop, it would be contradictory if the North continues to regard the South as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification,” he added.
At a key party meeting held last December, the North’s leader Kim Jong-un called for an “exponential” increase in its nuclear arsenal and developing tactical nuclear weapons. He dubbed South Korea as an “undoubted enemy.”
Amid stalled denuclearization talks with the United States, North Korea appears to have taken some measures in recent years that might back up the idea that “the two Koreas” co-exist in a confrontational atmosphere.
At a party congress in 2021, the North eliminated the post of a party secretary in charge of inter-Korean affairs. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a key apparatus handling inter-Korean talks and ties, has not issued any statement related to such affairs since the party congress.
In early July, North Korea rejected a bid by the chief of South Korea’s Hyundai Group, Hyun Jeong-eun, to visit the North’s Mount Kumgang in August through its foreign ministry, not via state organs in charge of inter-Korean relations.
South Korea’s unification ministry remained cautious about giving its assessment of the North’s intention over Kim Yo-jong’s reference to the ROK.
“In regard to the North’s rejection of Hyun’s bid and Kim’s statements, the government will closely monitor the situation without making prejudgment of the North’s intention and future attitude,” a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Source: Yonhap News Agency