UPDATE 3: See Chris Green’s comments here.
UPDATE 2: See Geoffrey See’s take at Choson Exchange.
UPDATE 1: See Evan Ramstad’s coverage of this story in the Wall Street Journal.
ORIGINAL POST: Following the spread of speculation in the West that the DPRK is in the midst of re-calibrating some of its economic policies (see here, here, here, here, and here), KCNA issued a public rebuttal (and took a swipe at deaf and blind people through some strange metaphors). According to the article (2012-7-29):
To Expect ‘Change’ from DPRK Is Foolish Ambition: Spokesman for CPRK
Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Sunday in connection with the fact that the south Korean puppet group is talking loudly about the DPRK’s “policy change” and “reform and opening”:
The army and people of the DPRK are dynamically advancing toward the final victory full of fresh conviction and vitality with a great honor and pride of holding in high esteem Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the party, army and state, as DPRK Marshal.
They are bringing about remarkable events one after another in high spirit and stamina while demonstrating over the world the dignity and might as a power which is carrying forward the tradition of Mt. Paektu. This stirring reality is greatly admired by the whole world.
Upset by this, the puppet group let experts in the north affairs and others interpret the stirring situation of the DPRK in a self-centered manner, vociferating about “signs of policy change” and “attempt at reform and opening”. This ridiculous rhetoric only revealed its ignorance and sinister intention against the DPRK.
As far as “signs of policy change” are concerned, there can not be any slightest change in all policies of the DPRK as they are meant to carry forward and accomplish the ideas and cause of the peerlessly great persons generation after generation, to all intents and purposes.
The DPRK is putting forward new strategic and tactical policies in keeping with the changing and developing situation in each stage of revolution. The puppet group is describing it as a “policy change” and tried to give impression that the present leadership of the DPRK broke with the past. This is the height of ignorance just like a deaf person saying in his favor.
As far as “attempt at reform and opening” is concerned, the DPRK has never left any field unreformed in socialist construction but always kept its door open.
In the foreign relations, the DPRK has flung its door open to all those countries that are friendly toward it in the idea of independence, friendship and peace. It also has kept its door of reconciliation, unity and reunification open in relations between the north and the south.
It is the hostile forces such as the U.S. and the south Korean puppet group that are running wild to isolate and stifle the DPRK with vicious sanctions while preventing it from conducting normal exchange with other countries.
From decades of trumpeting “reform and opening” to impose their corrupt system upon the DPRK, the hostile forces now seem to have been preoccupied by hallucination that such a move is taking place in the DPRK.
Such idiots ignorant of the DPRK are professing experts in the north affairs. Pitiful are the U.S. and the puppet group which are resorting to foolish ambition on the basis of their sham analysis.
Those obsessed by showdown can not properly see through the essence like a half blind.
The puppet group is vociferating about DPRK’s possible “system change” and “reform and opening”. This is aimed to create wrong impressions of the DPRK, being upset by the world’s attention being focused on Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un, who is leading the Korean revolution to victory with his matchless grit, pluck and outstanding leadership while steadily carrying forward the great Songun revolutionary cause of the peerlessly great men, and the growing reverence of broad range of people in south Korea for him.
It is also aimed at dampening the aspiration for reunification through alliance with the north mounting in south Korea, stoking confrontation and creating foolish impression of “north’s change” in a bid to realize the ambition for “unification through absorption” whose nature had been revealed.
To expect “policy change” and “reform and opening” from the DPRK is nothing but a foolish and silly dream just like wanting the sun to rise in the west.
The DPRK is effecting new innovations and creations in order to make its people enjoy modern and a highly civilized life and live in luxury and comfort under socialism to their heart’s content while pushing back the frontiers of latest science and technology in all fields. The puppet group should not get confused.
Great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the immutable guidelines and invincible banner of the Korean revolution and it is the steadfast faith of all the army and people of the DPRK to unswervingly keep to the path of socialism, the road of independence and Songun, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un.
The DPRK will in the future, too, push forward the general advance for the final victory and certainly build a reunified and thriving nation on this land by its own efforts, holding higher the banner of Juche and Songun.