In light of a recent speech delivered by
South Korean President Park Geun Hye, signaling a transition to a hard-line
policy and Seoul’s willingness to work toward a regime change in North Korea,
experts have pointed out this new approach must also be carried out alongside
strategies to transform the mindset of North Korean people.
As proven in the most recent fourth nuclear
test, the international community failed in producing any substantial results
despite international sanctions and a policy of isolation against the North
after the first three rounds of nuclear tests. Now, there are calls to use the
North Korean public as the key force for regime change along with existing
pressure against the leadership.
A number of North Korea experts agree
what’s most crucial in this strategy for regime change will be devising
different policies for the North Korean leadership and its people. They say
Seoul must cut off the funds that are propping up the Kim Jong Un regime and
respond aggressively to provocations but step up efforts to get information
from the outside world into the North to help educate the public.
Another point they emphasize is that the
South Korean government should work to win over the hearts of North Koreans
while they push for a regime change. By planting the seeds of solidarity, they
believe some form of change can be expected from within even at the smallest
level.
“We’ve confirmed once again that as long as
the Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un Suryong [Supreme Leader] system
exists, nothing in regards to its nuclear program, reforms, human rights, and
unification can be expected to be resolved,” a state-run institute researcher,
who asked not to be named, told Daily NK. “This is why it’s now absolutely
necessary to pursue a policy that can lead to a Kim Jong Un regime change.”
“On the most basic level, it’s undeniable that the government will
need to deter military provocations by the North and be vigilant in sealing off
all elements that may be misused to strengthen the Kim Jong Un regime, but
unless there are natural changes from within, it will not lead to regime
change” the researcher said.
“This is why we need to push forward with free
information, opening up the country, and promoting a market economy so that we
can change the mindset of everyone ranging from those within the Workers’ Party
and the Korean People’s Army to the public. We need to completely isolate the
Kim family from the rest of the 24 million North Koreans.”
The researcher added that although some
have referred to the shift in policy as “the end to the Trust-Building Process
on the Korean Peninsula,” what’s changing is actually the “target of
trust-building.” “To begin with, it was impossible to think the South and North
Korean governments would trust each other. Since they’ve now belatedly realized
this, they need to draw up a ‘New Trust-Building Process on the Korean
Peninsula’ with the goal of bridging the South’s 50 million and the North’s 24
million people.”
Senior Researcher Son Gi Woong from Korea
Institute for National Unification explained, “Germany’s unification was not
because the West pushed for a policy of absorption. It was possible because
people in East Germany had access to information from the outside world, and
their thoughts changed, and that led them to choose West Germany and its
liberal democracy.”
Had the West pushed for unification through
absorption, Son said, it would not have been welcomed neither by the people of
East Germany nor its surrounding countries.
“Just because the South Korean government
has shut down Kaesong Industrial Complex and declared strong measures against
the North, this should not be interpreted as a message that it will build a
wall against it,” he noted. “We must cut off all routes of capital inflows into
the North that can be used for the production of weapons of mass destruction
but step up operations to give the North Korean people eyes and ears to the
outside world.”
