This article was originally posted on VOA and translated by OKN Correspondent.
It is a bluff and arrogance that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is preparing for a long-term confrontation with the United States with powerful military technology, which would only endanger the North Korean people and the military, US experts and senior defectors said. North Korea’s military power is so inferior that it cannot even be compared with the world’s most powerful United States, and it is pointed out that the leader is putting the whole country in danger with false propaganda for system unity. Reporter Kim Young-kwon reports.
State-run media such as North Korea’s ‘Chosun Central TV’ reported on March 25 that Chairman Kim Jong-un celebrated the success of launching a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-17 and said that he is preparing for a long-term confrontation with the United States.
[Recording: Chosun Central TV] “You said that you are thoroughly preparing for a long-term confrontation with US imperialism with strong military technology.”
Chairman Kim also insisted that acquiring such a military offensive capability is for the safety of North Korea and the eternal well-being of all descendants.
However, Ryu Hyun-woo, former acting deputy ambassador to Kuwait, who defected to South Korea in 2019, told VOA on the 25th, “North Korean high-ranking officials are deceiving the people even though they know that confrontation with the United States will be the end [for them].”
Because of the Kim family’s logic of maintaining the system in order to constantly make the United States the main enemy for internal solidarity, only the residents continue to live a difficult life, deceived by false propaganda.
[Transcript: Former Acting Ambassador Ryu Hyeon-woo] “High-ranking officials are generally aware of the great strength of the United States. We all know that there is no substance in the case of confrontation with the United States. Despite this, isn’t internal solidarity the most dangerous thing for a ruler to send a message that Kim Jong-un uses the United States as his main enemy and continues to fight long-term with the United States? So, in order to achieve internal solidarity, the existence of the United States must continue to be the main enemy. That is why we continue to arm the people with anti-Americanism and anti-imperialist culture against the United States.”
David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), who served as the operational chief of staff for the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, pointed out that “Kim Jong-un’s comments are ignorant and arrogant” to prepare for a long-term confrontation with the United States.
[Recording: David Maxwell] “Kim Jong-un’s comments are ignorant but arrogant, and they are dangerous to his own people and his own military because his lies give his military and his people a false sense of security and a false sense of ability.”
Senior Fellow Maxwell said, “If war breaks out, North Koreans will know on the first day that everything Kim Jong-un said was a lie,” adding, “They will see their friends and comrades die and the People’s Army collapse and unable to survive the overwhelming firepower of the US and South Korean forces.”
The firepower of the US and North Korean forces, which have the strongest military power in the world, is so vast that it is difficult to even compare them.
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and ‘Global Firepower’, a military power evaluation agency, the US spends about 3.5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense every year.
This is more than 27 times the size of North Korea’s 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) estimated by the South Korean National Statistical Office, which is $28.9 billion, which is the sum of the market value of all goods and services produced in North Korea.
The U.S. military also has 13,247 military aircraft, including some 2,000 of the world’s strongest fighter jets, 6,612 state-of-the-art tanks, 45,000 armored vehicles, 1,300 rocket-propelled vehicles, 11 aircraft carriers and 68 nuclear-powered submarines. There are 484 warships, including ships, and more than 1.4 million active troops.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) pointed out in its ‘North Korea Military Force Report’ released last year that most conventional weapons in North Korea were imported from Russia and China between 1950 and 1970 and are very outdated and that North Korea’s production of weapons is very limited.
Senior Fellow Maxwell said that most of North Korea’s weapons are outdated Russian-made equipment, and North Koreans need to pay attention to how poorly Russia is fighting after invading Ukraine with the same and slightly more modern weapons.
[Recording: David Maxwell] “The first thing I think the Korean people in the North should look at is how badly Putin is fighting Putin’s war with the same equipment that North Korea uses actually, more modern equipment than North Korea uses.”
Ukraine, in particular, has been doing well with far fewer troops than Russia is because its troops have been well trained in the United States and in the West over the past few years and use modern weapons. He said the North Korean military was not at a level that threatened the US military.
Moreover, “Russian forces fight for the dictator Putin, but Ukrainians are fighting for freedom, which is different.”
[David Maxwell] “Russia is fighting for Putin and Ukrainian people are fighting for freedom and when you compare North Korea to South Korea and North Korea to the United States, South Korea and the United States will be fighting for freedom…”
Maxwell pointed out that the US and South Korean military also fight for the values of freedom and democracy, and that the North Korean forces that are brainwashed by Kim Jong-un have limitations and ultimately cannot win against the US and South Korea.
In addition, North Korea’s long-range artillery and multiple rocket launchers can be destroyed with precision-guided weapons through various advanced tracking and detection equipment of the US military. And its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) can be shot down with ground-launched interceptors deployed in Alaska. It is an explanation that all military facilities in North Korea will be destroyed with a far more overwhelming US nuclear capability.
If the war begins with a North Korean attack, the US F-35 and South Korean F-15 fighters can destroy all of North Korea’s air force and neutralize the air defense system on the first day. Kim Jong-un has repeatedly said that we must not instill false perceptions.
Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), who grew up in Romania, a former communist country in Eastern Europe, also pointed out that “Kim Jong-un is talking as if he’s going to have an arms race with the United States, but he’s talking unrealistically.”
He said, “There can be no arms race between North Korea and the United States,” adding, “The answer is self-evident when we look at the fact that the Soviet Union fought an arms race with the United States during the Cold War, and eventually the Soviet economy deteriorated due to the overwhelming dominance of the United States and the system collapsed.
[Recording: Greg Scarlatoiu] “There is no arms race between North Korea and the USA…Actually, during the Cold War, the United States clearly outclassed the Soviet Union, and guess what? If you look at what’s happening in Ukraine right now, you see that Russia is still outclassed by any type of Western NATO support for the Ukrainian freedom fighters. There is absolutely…”
Indeed, since the late 1950s, the Soviet Union has been competing with the United States in space exploration and in an arms race, overspending nearly 20% of its national budget on military expenditures, resulting in a path of the decline of its national finances.
Ko Young-hwan, a former North Korean diplomat and an advisory research fellow at the Korea Institute for National History, told VOA on March 24 that Chairman Kim Jong-un’s missile propaganda and incitement are gradually losing trust among residents.
[Recording: Commissioner Koh Young-hwan] “There is an idiom saying, “It is the same as selling dog meat when you say you are selling mutton.” It’s the same behavior as that. After all, what Kim Jong-un has done for the past 10 years is nothing but nuclear weapons and missiles. Since there is almost nothing he has done for the people, Kim Jong-un has no choice but to push forward with this. But why do they keep firing missiles even among North Koreans? It shows up in consciousness.”
The propaganda of the ICBM test launch may give residents pride for a while, but in the long run, it will inevitably become a subject of dissatisfaction due to the deterioration of people’s livelihoods.
Former acting ambassador Ryu Hyeon-woo said that in the end, everything is connected with the qualities of a national leader, “Efforts need to be made to help residents immediately see Kim Jong-un’s lies and true nature.”
[Transcript: Former Acting Ambassador Ryu Hyeon-woo] “A real leader of a nation must have a long-term national vision, but since it is a completely hereditary feudal hereditary dictatorship… I don’t know whether or not what they’re saying to the US is utter nonsense, but North Koreans have no basic preparations ready. Information must come in! America is stronger than us! I know this, but I think this is the biggest problem because it was blocked at the source. North Koreans need to know about the outside world, but they do not know how oppressed and their humans rights are being violated living in a closed space. In this respect, I think that sending information to North Korea is the most important project.”
To read the original article in Korean, please click here.
