According to Yonhap:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s reformatory policy is highly likely to spark political instability in the country, a Russian professor said Thursday, stressing the need to prepare for a potential volatile situation there.
“Kim Jong-un’s policy has a high possibility to destabilize North Korea’s local situation, therefore preparations are necessary for a sudden change there,” Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University, said during a forum co-hosted by Yonhap News Agency and the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation.
Under the reform-seeking young leader, North Korea is less secure than under the previous Kim Jong-il era when the country had experienced no changes, the professor said.
Under the new leadership, North Korea has shown signs of adopting a developmental dictatorship, the professor noted.
Kim is aware that he cannot hold on to his power for the next several decades without a reform.
Kim’s predecessor and father Kim Jong-il was different. In his 60s, he knew that even without the reform, which has the potential of thwarting the regime, his power grip could be sustained until his death, Lankov added.
Even though the North chooses to follow the footsteps of the Chinese economic reform, the reclusive country may have to be careful about opening up the country to the outside world, because after seeing South Korea’s incomparable affluence, North Koreans may become very discontented with the North Korean system, the professor said.
“It will be something tantamount to an act of political suicide,” he noted.
If North Korea happens to succeed in the reform drive, the result will better help the two Koreas peacefully coexist over the long term, he said, adding that it will cut down the costs of unification.
Touching on North Korea’s nuclear ambition, he said the communist country will never even dream of giving up its nuclear arsenal.
“Any reward, any pressure will be of no avail,” because nuclear weapons are irreplaceable means of deterrence and threats for the Kim regime.
The North Korean government knows that Gaddafi is the only leader who gave up nuclear arms in international political history and he was killed, according to the professor.
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Preparations needed for potential volatile situation in N. Korea: Lankov
Yonhap
2015-8-13
