- HEADLINES
- Thae Yong-ho was formerly No. 2 at the North Korean Embassy in London
- He sees a change in US administration as something Kim Jong-un will take advantage of
Political
uncertainty in the United States and in South Korea could give North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un "an apt time" to develop nuclear weapons "at
all costs by the end of 2017," a high-profile North Korean diplomat who
recently defected to South Korea said Tuesday.
"Due
to domestic political procedures, North Korea calculates that South
Korea and the US will not be able to take physical or military actions
to deter North Korea's nuclear development," Thae Yong-ho, formerly No. 2
at the North Korean Embassy in London, said in a news briefing,
according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Thae
said Kim has no plans to give up the country's nukes even if he is
offered huge sums of money, saying the leader is "racing ahead with
nuclear development after setting up a plan to develop it (nuclear
weapons) at all costs by the end of 2017."
President-elect Donald Trump signaled last week
that he will look to "strengthen and expand" the US's nuclear
capability, tweeting, "The United States must greatly strengthen and
expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its
senses regarding nukes." Trump's comments came hours after Russian
President Vladimir Putin also pledged to enhance his country's nuclear
forces.
What could Trump do about North Korea? 02:29
Pyongyang
will try to open dialogue with Seoul and Washington's new
administrations as a nuclear-possessing state, Thae predicted of the
North's strategy to obtain a nuclear power status.
Until
then, North Korea will continue to launch military provocations and
conduct nuclear tests in a bid to frustrate Seoul and Washington's
sanctions-concentrated policy towards Pyongyang, Thae said.
"North
Korea believes that relentless provocations must shift new (South
Korean and US) governments' policy lines into more stability-focused
ones," he said according to the Yonhap News Agency, one of the few
outlets allowed into the briefing.
North
Korea has recently stipulated a dual nuclear-economic development
policy to be part of the ruling party's official platform, but in
reality, the decision puts nuclear development at the top priority, he
said.
"Following the ruling party
congress in May, Kim Jong-un made it a party policy to finish nuclear
development within the earliest time possible," he told the news agency.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in October that it's a "lost cause" to try to get North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons.
"They
are under siege and they are very paranoid. So the notion of giving up
their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them,"
Clapper said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"The best we could probably hope for is some sort of a cap."
US intel chief: North Korea will never give up nukes
Tuesday
was Thae's first appearance to the media since he escaped his post in
London to take refuge in South Korea along with his wife and two sons in
July.
Educated overseas and having
spent decades at foreign posts, the 55-year-old Thae becomes one of the
highest-ranking North Korean officials yet known to have defected to
the South though some senior-level defections are not known to the
public as well.
He plans to join a South Korean national security think tank starting next year as a researcher.
South Korea's National Assembly impeached President Park Geun-hye earlier
this month over a corruption scandal. It's now up to the country's
Constitutional Court to deliberate the impeachment motion, a process
that could take up to 180 days. Park said last month that she would
resign if "the National Assembly sets a path for the stable transition
of power."
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