Thae Yong-ho speaks in US
A former high-ranking North Korean official said Tuesday that the U.S. Donald Trump administration should seek maximum engagement with Pyongyang while exerting maximum pressure on the regime.
Thae Yong-ho, a former deputy chief at the North Korean embassy in London, underlined the need to seek a two-track North Korea policy on his first visit to the United States.
“I support a maximum pressure policy, but it should go together with maximum engagement,” he told a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C, adding engagement should be applied to both the North Korean leadership and its people.
“I strongly believe in the use of soft power before taking any military action,” he said, noting the focus of the recent North Korea policy being shifted to “hard power.”
The ex-top official said helping North Koreans get more South Korean information can spur changes in the reclusive country.
“I strongly believe if we educate the North Korean population we can change North Korea,” he said. “You can’t change the reign of terror policy of the internal regime, but we can introduce the dissemination of outside information inside North Korea.”
He said SD memory cards circulating among young North Koreans as seeds of potential change, noting they are called “nose cards” because people insert them in their nostrils to avoid detection during a body search.
Thae claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s repeated purge of officials has to do with his insecurity about the legitimacy of his leadership.
“Whenever he watched senior leaders’ attitudes around him, he thought there was a feeling of superiority from the senior leaders because he was the third son,” Thae said. “A lot of the North Korean population doesn’t know that he is the third son.”