Kim Jong Un, the querulous North Korean leader, said the recent standoff with South Korea was resolved not through negotiation but “thanks to the tremendous military muscle” of the country’s nuclear weapons.
Some analysts have suggested that Pyongyang’s recent eagerness to hold talks with Seoul could be a sign of domestic vulnerability for Kim, whose official titles include first chairman of the National Defense Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.
But according to North Korea’s version of events, last weekend’s standoff with South Korea was a sign of the former’s strength.
“We protected the dignity and sovereignty of the country, the gains of the revolution and the happiness of the people by our own efforts amid the tempest of the history without anybody’s support and sympathy,” Kim told officials at a meeting to analyze and review the “revolutionary measures” the regime had taken over the past week, according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The news report, published Friday, also said that the 30-something leader had dismissed some members of the Central Military Commission, which is responsible for the Korean Workers’ Party’s military policies, and appointed new ones. But it did not say which officials had been replaced. The dismissals come after an extended period of sometimes-brutal personnel changes in North Korea, notably Kim’s execution of his defense minister this year.
Tensions between North Korea and South Korea – which remain technically at war because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty — escalated sharply this month after two South Korean soldiers were severely wounded in a land mine explosion blamed on the North.
Seoul retaliated by switching on huge propaganda speakers that blared derogatory messages about Kim across the border, angering the North Korean regime, which treats Kim like a deity. Pyongyang quickly threatened military action if the speakers were not silenced by 5 p.m. Saturday. The standoff was resolved after more than 40 hours of talks when South Korea settled Tuesday for an expression of regret, rather than an apology, from North Korea, and agreed to turn off the speakers.