Kim Jong-un, chairperson of North Korea's State Affairs Commission, said there is no reason not to "get along well" with the United States if Washington withdraws its hostile policy and recognizes North Korea's status as a nuclear-armed state. Toward South Korea's Lee Jae-myung administration, he dismissed the possibility of dialogue, calling its conciliatory posture a "charade" and saying it would be "permanently excluded from the category of compatriots."
Korean Central News Agency reported on the 26th that in its coverage of the 9th party congress, it relayed the contents of the chairperson's "work summary report" delivered on the 20th and 21st. The North Korean party congress, which began on the 19th of this month, closed on the 25th.
In the report, the chairperson stressed, "It is our party's unwavering will to further expand and strengthen the national nuclear forces and to fully exercise the status of a nuclear-armed state."
He went on, "We will firmly maintain the toughest stance as a consistent policy line toward the United States," but added, "If the United States respects our state's current status as stipulated in the constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and withdraws its hostile policy toward North Korea, we have no reason not to get along well with the United States."
He reaffirmed the policy that relations could improve on the condition that the United States recognizes their status as a nuclear-armed state.
He added, "If the United States does not break away from the practices it has customarily inflicted on us and comes out confrontational to the end, we will respond proportionally and consistently, and we have ample means and methods."
He continued, "The outlook for DPRK-U.S. relations depends entirely on the U.S. side's attitude," adding, "Whether it is peaceful coexistence or permanent confrontation, we are prepared for everything, and it is not we who make that choice," tossing the ball to Washington.
Regarding South Korea, he said, "There is absolutely nothing to discuss with the most hostile entity, the Republic of Korea, and we will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots," once again making clear the line of "two hostile states."
The chairperson reiterated this stance toward the South, saying it was "again proclaimed through the party congress, the highest leading body of the ruling party that decides the state's line and policy."
In particular, asserting that successive South Korean ruling forces have sought the collapse of the North Korean system, he drew a line on the Lee Jae-myung administration, saying, "The conciliatory posture outwardly advertised by the current ruling regime in South Korea is a clumsy charade and a botched work."
He dismissed it as "an erroneous practice that should no longer be allowed to continue to deal with a harmful entity that outwardly advocates deceptive reconciliation and peace while scheming our disarmament under the signboard of 'denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,' held captive by the inertia of being the same nation and justifying an absolutely impossible reconciliation and unification."
The chairperson said, "As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical condition of sharing a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything with us and not touch us," ruling out room for progress in inter-Korean relations.
He also said South Korea must stop "unnecessary moves that could break existing stability," raising the level of threat by saying that "the use of all physical forces applicable to hostile countries, including the mission of a preemptive strike," is theoretically and technically possible.
He argued, "If South Korea's fussy behavior carried out at the doorstep of a nuclear-armed state is recognized as an act that damages our security environment, we can initiate any action," adding, "On the extension of that action, the possibility of South Korea's complete collapse cannot be ruled out."
The chairperson also noted, "Our rivals do not know what we are conceiving and what we are calculating. They cannot know, and they must not know," adding, "That is an indelible anxiety and fear for the enemies," suggesting that "strategic ambiguity" will be maintained in future steps.