Pyongyang's Pivot Back To Military Tensions
Date
12/15/2023 3:18:48 PM
(MENAFN- Asia Times) More missile tests, rapidly advancing relations with Russia and China and zero progress on diplomacy with the United States and South Korea – this was the direction North Korea took in 2023. While the rest of the world was distracted by conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, Pyongyang continued biding its time, expanding its military arsenal and solidifying its Cold War-era alliances.
The year started with Kim Jong Un calling for a massive increase in the production of tactical nuclear weapons and labelling South Korea as its“undoubted enemy,” signaling little interest in returning to the times of inter-Korean cooperation under former South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
Instead, North Korea unveiled four new missiles at a military parade on 8 February and just ten days later conducted its first missile test of the year - a long-range missile that fell in Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Pyongyang's irritation at Seoul grew even more in April when the current South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Washington to meet with US President Joe Biden. In response to the US–South Korea joint statement released after the summit, Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong said it would“only result in making peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world be exposed to more serious danger, and it is an act that can thus never be welcome.”
Sensing that the Yoon government was opting for an all-in strategy with the United States and Japan, the Kim government in the North also began shifting its attention to old-time allies Russia and China.
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