North Korea warned the world Friday to expect no policy changes under new leader Kim Jong-Un, and threatened retaliation against South Korea for “rubbing salt” into the wounds of its grieving people. The tough statement came a day after the communist nation ended 13 days of mourning for late leader Kim Jong-Il, and proclaimed his son Jong-Un as new supreme chief at a massive memorial ceremony. We “solemnly declare with confidence that the South Korean puppets and foolish politicians around the world should not expect any change from the DPRK (North Korea),” said the National Defence Commission (NDC), the top decision-making body. The North will never have dealings “with the Lee Myung-Bak group of traitors”, the NDC said, referring to the South’s conservative president in a statement carried on the official news agency and state television.
“We will surely force the group of traitors to pay for its hideous crimes committed at the time of the great national misfortune,” it said, accusing Seoul’s government of insulting behaviour during the mourning period for Kim. A “sea of tears” shed by the North’s army and people would “turn into that of retaliatory fire to burn all the group of traitors”.
Despite the bellicose language, analysts said the North was warning the world against any interference during the transition and that the chance of any provocation was low. The NDC’s Korean-language statement Friday referred to the son as “great leader”, a title also conferred on his father and grandfather, although the English-language version did not use the phrase.
The world has been watching for any signs of change under the new leader. His father presided over a 1990s famine which killed hundreds of thousands, pursued a nuclear and missile programme which brought international sanctions and resisted Chinese pressure to reform the crumbling state-directed economy. Inter-Korean relations have been frosty since Lee took office in February 2008 and linked major economic aid to nuclear disarmament. Seoul’s response to Kim’s death was seen as conciliatory even by domestic political opponents. However it permitted only two private mourning delegations to visit Pyongyang and sent no government representative. The North has repeatedly blasted the “inhuman” response by the South, and rapped Seoul’s decision to briefly order troops on alert after Kim’s death.
