North Korea’s Kim lays out vision for inter-Korean relations

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says South Korea must stop buying weapons from the United States and halt its joint military exercises with America in order for inter-Korean relations to improve.

Kim made the remarks during the second plenary meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

On the second day of the plenary meeting, he laid out “the direction of future action to be taken” by the ruling party with regard to South Korea, KCNA said on Wednesday.

Kim provided “the direction of future action to be taken by the sector in charge of affairs with South Korea and the sector in charge of external affairs, before underscoring the need to thoroughly carry them out without fail,” KCNA wrote.

He raised the issue of reshaping relations with South Korea “as required by the prevailing situation and the changed times,” but called on Seoul to stop military transactions with Washington and halt provocative war games in the region.

The US, which has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, has been holding massive drills with South Korea every year, in what the North has called rehearsals for an invasion.

'Planned US-S Korea military drills pose barrier to peace'

Nearly 400 NGOs around the world sign a joint statement calling for the US-South Korea drills to be scrapped.

The joint, annual war games have long been a trigger point for heightened military and political tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The drills have been suspended since 2018, but Washington has renewed the call for their full resumption.

US Forces Korea said last month that it would take part in a joint military exercise with the South Korean military in March.

South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook also confirmed that the military was preparing for computer-simulated defensive drills with US forces.

The US and South Korea canceled a bilateral exercise last spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, but went on with a two-week drill in August.

The North and South Korea are technically at war as the 1953 Korean War ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

Ever since, the two countries have been on a near-constant war footing.

The two Koreas, however, were on a path of rapprochement beginning in January 2018 before US intransigence to relieve sanctions on the North effectively killed diplomacy.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, however, has continued to mediate between the North and the United States. He said last month that US President Joe Biden should hold talks with Kim to build on the progress made in the suspended peace talks.

But the Biden administration has already called for “genuine economic pressure to squeeze North Korea to get it to the negotiating table.”

Former US president Donald Trump met with Kim three times, but he refused to offer sanctions relief for Pyongyang, hampering diplomacy.

US, South Korea agree to map out 'comprehensive' North Korea strategy

South Korean President Moon and US President Biden agree to draw up a joint "comprehensive" strategy on North Korea and closely cooperate to bring about the denuclearization of the country.

Moon held a telephone conversation with Biden for the first time last week, during which the two leaders agreed to draw up a joint “comprehensive” strategy on North Korea.

The White House said that Biden’s conversation with Moon was meant to “stress his commitment to strengthening the United States-(South Korea) alliance, which is the linchpin for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.”

North Korea has long been under harsh UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. The US has spearheaded those sanctions and has imposed several rounds of its own.

Analysts warn that if the Biden administration moves forward with the joint exercises in March, it will likely sabotage any prospect of diplomacy with North Korea in the near future.

Biden, they say, will rather heighten geopolitical tensions, and risk reigniting a war on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim pointed out last month that the US was the “biggest enemy” of his country, regardless of who is president in America.

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