Thread by @SungYoonLee1

@Thaeyongho speaks at @Heritage 9:00am EST 8/12 & @CSIS 9:00am 8/13. A thread on the ex-#DPRK diplomat's take on NK ploys & #KimJongUn's 2018 post-provocation outreach plan etc from his fabulous memoir (in Korean). All ENG tr. my own. @BruceKlingner @SueMiTerry @VictorDCha

Page numbers in parentheses. Here we go.

I. #KimIlSung's "Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" racket

#MaoZedong told Kim at dinner 4/18/1975 not to "even dream of developing nuclear weapons," as it "will devastate the economy and people’s lives will suffer.” (44) 2/

Kim was disheartened. From mid-1975 on Kim vociferously called for the withdrawal of US nuclear warheads from SK; announced a “Korean Peninsula Nuclear-Free Zone” & started his covert nuclear program. In 1980 announced with Japan’s Socialist Party in a joint statement 3/

“Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” (45). In 1985 Kim announced “Korean Peninsula Nuclear-Free Peace Zone” & joined the IAEA. In early-1990s #KimJongIl used talks with SK whenever the US pressed NK for denuclearization. 'Twas a tactic to buy as much time as possible." 4/

The #US declared on Sept 28, 1991, it was withdrawing all tactical nuclear weapons deployed overseas. US nukes in SK were withdrawn. N-S accords including a detailed Denuclearization Accord followed. Meanwhile, Kims I & II pressed ahead w their nuclear weapons program. 5/

"The 1994 Geneva Accord was a ploy for buying time." (52) Kim II told Foreign Minister Kang Suk Ju before he departed for Geneva, “What we need is time.” Future FM Ri Yong Ho at the outset of the 1st nuclear crisis, despite his calm demeanor: “DPRK must withdraw from the NPT 6/

"and declare a semi-state of war and create a warlike crisis.” (79). Ri was well prepared, as he had spent six months in #UN Disarmament training program in 1990. Ri visited various think tanks & bought many books on nuclear negotiations. Days after Trump's #RocketMan speech 7/

at UNGA in Sept 2017, Ri calmly spoke of boss's plans for an "unprecedented powerful hydrogen bomb over the Pacific."

KJI preached to NK diplomats: "Play honest, dumb, innocent & aggrieved, foolhardy, & extract all you can.” (66).

NK reads Shakespeare. "Readiness is all." 8/

II. KJI Using Barbarians against Barbarians

Thae writes NK "used Europe to check the US. Under Kim Jong Il NK transitioned from Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary diplomacy to containment diplomacy.” In Mar 1995, the 1st meeting b/t NK & UK took place at UK embassy in Geneva. 9/

NK delegation: “In the post-Cole War era, the UK does not need to adhere to US hostile policy toward the DPRK. The UK should adopt an independent policy toward the DPRK as befits a permanent member of the UNSC.” (59)
"Independent of the US" is what NK preaches SK must become. 10/

UK urged negotiations for normalization of relations. #DPRK delegation to Europe visits London on 12/6/2000. (157). Normalization treaty signed on Dec 12. KCNA reported with enthusiasm. It marked the end of DPRK’s diplomatic isolation since the PRC-ROK normalization in 1992. 11/

Foreign Secretary John Kerr said, “This was made possible thanks to ROK President Kim Dae Jung’s Sunshine Policy.” (162). Kim Jong Il used SK to use the UK to balance the Bush admin. Post-June inter-Korean summit, KJI allowed NK diplomats to mingle with SK counterparts. (170) 12/

Swedish embassy in Pyongyang requested Internet use ahead of Swedish PM Goran Persson’s visit to DPRK in May 2001 as chairman of the EU—first-ever visit to NK by a European head of state. Permission granted. Other embassies were grateful (172-74). Persson visited KJI May 2-3. 13/

Persson: “Even if the N Korean nuclear issue is resolved, as long the human rights issue remains unresolved, NK will find it hard to be accepted by the int'l community. It would be in NK’s interest in the long run to cooperate with the int'l community on human rights issues.” 14/

How did KJI respond? Thae attended the farewell luncheon as interpreter & heard everything. Was impressed w. KJI’s tact & improv skills. Persson told Kim to reform. Kim: “You are sitting in the very chair Kim Dae Jung sat in.” Kim said yes to dialog on human rights & reform. 15/

KJI: “You are right. To date, we have copied the Soviet economic system as is. That’s all we have seen, that’s all we know. But it’s collapsed. As you say, the N. Korean economic system is vulnerable. I agree. But for us to change our system & adopt reform and opening," 16/

"we need experts, and we have none. We lack the knowledge to change. Please lend us some help.” Persson was stunned & said he would invite NK’s economic policy officials and pay all costs. (179). KJI pressed on: “The prime minister has raised economic reform & human rights." 17/

KJI: "Prime Minister Yon Hyong Muk has visited Sweden before and has told me it is such an advanced country. I also want to visit Sweden and see it for myself, so I can better conceive of a new reform plan for NK. Why don’t you extend an official invitation to me to visit?" 18/

"And I would think it possible to take advantage of my visit to Sweden and meet other heads of state as well on the trip abroad.” (179).

Once Persson left, KJI said to his men: “Human rights are tied to State rights. We can never allow outsiders access to our inner core." 19/

KJI: "Find a strategy to deceive the EU and buy time. We need the EU to check the US.”

The foreign ministry came up with a plan for KJI: “We will devise a plan to drag out the dialogue over many years. We will start with highlighting the difference in the very concept of" 20/

"‘human rights’ and suggest taking one step at a time. Let’s plan preliminary talks and have exchanges on training human rights specialists. At the same time, since delay tactic alone will not cut it, we will start to prepare right away [Potemkin] courts, prisons, prisoners" 21/

"to show them a few years down the road. If the US and EU gang up on us with a human rights offensive there will be a need to resort to an extreme hardline measure like a nuclear test with which we can divert their attention to the nuclear issue. If we ratchet up" 22/

"the nuclear crisis, the US can only revert to ‘first nuclear, second human rights’ posture as before. We will bury human rights with nukes.” (178).

Persson also asked Kim at lunch when he might visit SK, as agreed in the June 15 2000 joint statement. KJI answered, 23/

“When N-S relations advance a bit more I shall visit."

But after Persson left, KJl told Kang Suk Ju, “It seems that Persson brought up the issue of my reciprocal visit to Seoul because Kim DJ asked him to. President Kim still thinks I could visit Seoul What a fool he is!” 24/

Thae: “This is typical of KJI’s double dealing. Since I came to SK many people have told me, ‘KJI told Kim DJ during the summit that he does not oppose the continued presence of US troops in the South.’ How astonished I was that they take KJI’s words at face value.” (181) 25/25