SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his wife to a Lunar New Year’s Day concert held in Pyongyang. He received thunderous applause from the audience and artists, who praised him for bringing a new era of national power. State media reported.
After a series of missile tests in January by North Korea’s official media, some experts believe that Kim’s authoritarian leadership was being emphasized by the North to press Washington for deadlocked nuclear negotiations. This comes after two years of economic decline and pandemic border closures.
Biden’s administration called on the U.N. Security Council Thursday to discuss North Korea’s recent test of an intermediate range missile capable of reaching Guam. Guam is a critical U.S. military base in the Pacific. Sunday’s test was a signal that major weapons testing, which Kim had stopped in 2018, while he initiated diplomacy with the U.S. president Donald Trump, has resumed.
Since the 2019 collapse of the Kim-Trump second meeting, when North Korea rejected the Americans’ demands for major releases of U.S.-led sanctions and a partial surrender of its nuclear capability, talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been deadlocked.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim and Ri Sol Ju were greeted by “stormy cheers” upon their arrival at Pyongyang’s Mansudae Art Theater on Tuesday for the concert. KCNA reported that the audience appreciated Kim’s “ushering in on the land a new realm and a new era when people’s ideals, happiness and desire to build a strong country are fully realized.”
The KCNA stated that artists performed songs and dances that showed the “singleminded unity” of North Koreans and their determination to create a socialist country “to rival the world”.
State TV footage showed Kim and Ri talking and smiling at the theater, while Kim Kyong Hui sat next to Kim Kyong Hui’s aunt, who was making her first public appearance for two years.
Kim Kyong Hui was left in doubt following Kim Jong Un’s marriage to her husband, the North’s former-No. Jang Song Thaek was executed in 2013 for treason, corruption and other offences. Rumours circulated that her nephew had purged or executed her, and she was last seen at a Lunar New Year’s celebration in 2020 with Kim Jong Un.
Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry released a statement on Wednesday accusing Washington for continuing hostilities against the North and questioning its sincerity in offering dialogue. The ministry criticized U.S.-South Korea’s military drills, and made a questionable claim that the U.S. had been sending military assets to the region in order to press the North.
Since 2018, the United States has drastically reduced its combined exercises with South Korea. These have mostly been reduced into computer simulations to make space for diplomacy and COVID-19 concerns. Experts believe that North Korean claims of hostility by the United States are used as a pretext to continue testing, while Kim expands his military capabilities despite having limited resources.
Analysts believe that North Korea’s increased weapons testing may reflect an urgency in Pyongyang’s leadership to seek outside relief.
Kim has been reviving his brinkmanship skills to win concessions from the Biden government. The administration has offered open-ended negotiations but not shown any willingness to relax sanctions on Kim unless he takes steps to end his nuclear weapons program.
Sunday’s Hwasong-12 intermediate range ballistic missile flight test was the longest-distance weapon that the North has ever tested since 2017. In 2017, the North flew Hwasong-12s twice over Japan, and separately three intercontinental missiles. These missiles demonstrated the ability to penetrate the American homeland.
Kim had called a meeting of ruling party members where they made a veiled threat that the North’s 2018 moratorium against the testing nuclear devices was lifted. They also cited U.S hostility.
U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken called Hayashi Yoshimasa, Japan’s Foreign Minister, to condemn North Korea’s recent missile tests. He also promised trilateral cooperation with South Korea in order to address the threat posed by North Korea, a spokesperson for State Department Ned Price stated.
Experts believe the North may stop its test spree following the Beijing Winter Olympics. This is to show respect for China, which is its main ally and economic support. However, there is also the possibility that it will significantly increase its weapons demonstrations after the Olympics. This would attract the attention of the Biden government, which has been more focused on the confrontation with Russia and China over the conflict in Ukraine.
