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BY ZACH TOOMBS
North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un seemed to extend an olive branch to longtime rival South
Korea in a new year’s address Tuesday. He took to state television to say this.
“An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving
its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South … Confrontation
between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war." [Video: BBC]
This comes just a few weeks after North Korea defied international pressure — and infuriated
South Korea — with a test rocket launch. Kim Jong-Un called it a mission to put a satellite
in space, but the United Nations says it was meant as a weapons test. [Video: CNN]
According to Al Jazeera, South Korea’s official response to Kim’s speech was one of indifference
— labeling it an empty promise for peaceful relations. But the nation’s new president-elect,
Park Geun-Hye, has expressed interest in opening up talks with North Korea.
Economic necessities could be at the heart of Kim’s warmer tone. [Video: ABC Australia]
A New York Times article from August chronicled isolationist North Korea’s ongoing struggles
to even feed its own people, reporting:
“North Korea’s poverty is so deep, and its economy so dysfunctional, that two-thirds
of its people are estimated to be suffering from chronic food shortages."
Kim’s speech marks the first televised new year’s address from a North Korean leader
in 19 years. The UK’s Telegraph writes there’s reason to view Kim’s comments with skepticism.
“Analysts were cautiously optimistic but warned that much of the substance of Mr Kim's
speech had been heard before … North Korea is notorious for making overtures at a rapprochement
with the West, and with its southern neighbours, only to later renege."