North Korea has no intention of attacking South Korea, nor does it have any interest in a forceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula, the country’s leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday.
On October 7, the North Korean leader visited the University of National Defence on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, giving a speech on the occasion.
‘To be honest, I don’t even think about attacking the Republic of Korea. The very idea gives me the chills, I don’t even want to face these people,’ the Korean Central News Agency quoted him as saying.
‘There used to be a lot of talk about some kind of liberation of the South, even a forced reunification. But now there is no such interest at all,’ he emphasised, adding that Pyongyang had declared a course toward de facto recognition of the existence of two separate states.
‘But the problem is that they can’t seem to leave us alone,’ Kim Jong Un pointed out. ‘The Republic of Korea will be safe as long as we don’t use our armed forces. It’s as simple as that,’ he underscored.
‘However, it seems there is no one in Seoul big enough to do this simple thing: Stop provoking us and do not brag about weapons,’ the North Korean leader noted.
According to him, ‘even the greatest military leader in history’ would not be able to find a way to bridge the gap between the military potentials of nuclear and non-nuclear states.
On October 1, South Korea held a military parade to celebrate Armed Forces Day.
The South Korean authorities said the celebration was meant to show South Korea’s military capabilities to Pyongyang, which should have a deterrent effect on the neighbouring country.
On August 15, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed a concept of reunification based on freedom, which critics say is nothing more than the absorption of North Korea.
At the same time, the minister in charge of relations with North Korea said that South Korea does not seek forceful reunification.
However, North Korea will accelerate efforts to become a military superpower and a major nuclear power, Kim Jong Un has said.
In a speech at the University of National Defence on October 7, the North Korean leader said breaking the strategic balance on the Korean peninsula would mean war, so he justified North Korea’s policy course aimed at possessing physical means that would help ‘contain the adversary and keep the situation under control’.
‘Our steps toward becoming a military superpower and a nuclear power will accelerate,’ Kim said.
‘The military alliance of the United States and the Republic of Korea, as flouted by the puppets themselves, has become completely nuclear-based, and we need to keep our military preparedness at an endlessly high level,’ he added.
Kim threatened to use nuclear weapons as he said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was confronted by ‘the world’s largest nuclear power’.
Kim Jong Un emphasised that North Korea would ‘not tolerate’ any disruption to the military balance on the Korean Peninsula.
- North Korea and China have marked the 75th anniversary of their bilateral relationship amid escalated tensions over cold ties with the West.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged messages last Sunday, expressing hope for better and stronger ties between the two countries.
In Kim’s message, he said Pyongyang will ‘steadily strive to consolidate and develop the friendly and cooperative relations’ between the two countries, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
In Xi’s message to Kim, he said that China is ready to jointly promote ‘the stable and further advance of the socialist cause in the two countries,’ KCNA reported.
Leaving the Cold War and the traditional world order behind, the world is witnessing a new order in which the US and Israel are doomed to fail, with Iran rising up in light of China and Russia’s dominance.
Ever since China and North Korea established diplomatic ties on October 6, 1949, their bilateral relationship has been described as being ‘as close as lips and teeth’.
The two leaders marked the anniversary of the two countries’ close bilateral ties just days after China celebrated the 75th founding anniversary of New China.
The past seven decades have seen China rise from a poor country to the world’s second-largest economy and a major country moving ever closer to beating the United States and taking centre stage in global science, industry, and technology.
US foreign policy, however, seeks to maintain its global hegemony, devised after World War II and consolidated with the eventual fall of the Soviet Union, through its globally spread military bases in US-allied countries and US-led global institutions overseeing international commerce and the world economy.
The China-North Korea relationship is marked by the shared goal of countering US influence in the region.
To this date, China remains North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider amid the West’s sanctions.
China sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against US influence in the region.
China’s support for Pyongyang reflects its desire to maintain regional stability while minimising the risk of a North Korean collapse that could result in a flood of refugees and a US-allied Korea on its border.
- Labour disputes over wage and collective bargaining agreements at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HD HHI) in South Korea are intensifying.
The company has appealed to the union to accept what it claims is the industry’s highest wage increase, reflecting its financial performance, but the union has rejected the offer, halting negotiations and launching a strike.
According to industry sources on October 8, the HD HHI Union, the HHI branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), held a four-hour partial strike starting at 1.30pm, staging a protest at the Ulsan shipyard to pressure the company into accepting their demands.
It marked the union’s first strike this month after conducting eight partial strikes in September.
A four-hour joint strike involving the Union of Shipbuilding Industries is also scheduled.
On September 5, management proposed a basic wage increase of 102,000 won ($76), including the regular step raise, and a bonus of 4 million won, but when the union held multiple strikes, saying the offer fell far short of their expectations, management presented a second offer during negotiations on September. 25.
The second offer included a basic wage increase of 122,500 won, a 4 million won bonus plus a 300,000 won gift certificate, and the introduction of a new performance bonus for zero major accidents. Despite these improvements, the union rejected the proposal.
In comparison, Samsung Heavy Industries settled its wage negotiations on September 12 with a basic wage increase of 121,526 won and a bonus of 3 million won, which is lower than HD HHI’s second offer.
Hanwha Ocean’s offer, presented to its union on September 30, included a basic wage increase of 115,904 won, a settlement bonus of 2.5 million won, and a 1 million won co-prosperity bonus, also falling short of Samsung Heavy Industries’ offer.
The union at HD HHI, is demanding a significantly higher wage increase than the company’s offer.
At the end of April, the union proposed a basic wage increase of 159,800 won, changes to the performance bonus calculation from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent of the operating profit denominator, and an adjustment to the longevity bonus to an increase of 10,000 won per year of service.
Excluding the 35,000 won step raise from the basic wage increase request, the total demand rises to 194,800 won, which is 72,300 won more than the company’s offer.
Management claims that it has proposed a higher wage increase than Samsung Heavy Industries, whose operating profit margin in the first half is higher than that of HD HHI.
However, the union argues that operational performance metrics tied to wage increases should be based on sales revenue rather than operating profit, which includes capital investments.
HD HHI’s operating profit margin in the first half was 3.2 per cent, lower than Samsung Heavy’s 4.3 per cent, but its expected annual sales of 14 trillion won far exceed Samsung Heavy’s 10 trillion won.
The union’s rejection of the offer is also attributed to the fact that it falls short of last year’s wage agreement, which included a basic wage increase of 127,000 won, a 4 million won bonus, and a 500,000 won gift certificate.
Meanwhile, unions at other major shipbuilding companies continue to pressure management with strikes.
The Hanwha Ocean union, part of the KMWU Daewoo Shipbuilding, held a four-hour strike on Tuesday afternoon, following one on Monday October7.
K Shipbuilding also held a five-hour strike yesterday, October 10, with unions from five companies – HD HHI, HD Hyundai Mipo, HD Hyundai Samho, Hanwha Ocean, and K Shipbuilding – participating in joint strike action under the Union of Shipbuilding Industries.
