Kim Jong-un's 'hostile states' theory still a work in progress, former North Korean envoy-turned-defector says

A former North Korean diplomat suggested Pyongyang has yet to institutionalize leader Kim Jong-un's declaration of a hostile relationship between the two Koreas.

Tae Yong-ho, secretary-general of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, speaks during a press briefing on Wednesday at the council's conference room. [PEACEFUL UNIFICATION ADVISORY COUNCIL]

A former North Korean diplomat suggested Pyongyang has yet to institutionalize leader Kim Jong-un's declaration of a hostile relationship between the two Koreas.

"I believe even within North Korea, the 'two hostile states' theory hasn't been completed," Tae Yong-ho, secretary general of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council — a presidential consultative body on unification — told the press at a briefing held at the council in Seoul on Wednesday. Tae served as a North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain before defecting to South Korea in 2016.

The remark comes as North Korea keeps mum about South's "unification doctrine," a vision for a unified Korean Peninsula mainly through expanding access to outside information for North Koreans, which President Yoon unveiled during his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech. Earlier this year, Kim redefined inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other" and labeled South Korea as his country's "invariably principal enemy."

"North Korea finds it challenging to counter Yoon's proposal on unification and is not fully prepared to institutionalize their theory internally," Tae explained. "The absence of any detailed plans or supporting documents for overseas shows that the theoretical groundwork remains incomplete."

Tae further revealed that even senior figures from the pro-Pyongyang group Chongryon, based in Japan, raised concerns after reviewing Pyongyang's "two hostile states" guideline that abandons the concepts of one nation and unification.

"North Korea recently sent a guideline [on the 'two hostile states' theory] to Chongryon," Tae said. "The Chongryon elders asked, 'How can we abandon unification like this?' However, they were told to accept the guideline as it was, as Pyongyang had no policy explanation forthcoming," Tae explained.

Tae also noted that there are North Korean diplomats who have defected yet remain unidentified, residing not only in South Korea but also abroad, such as in the United States and Europe. Tae explained that some diplomats' children had fled to South Korea, leading their parents to return to Pyongyang voluntarily.

"I've heard of cases where a diplomat's child fled to South Korea, leading the parents to go back to Pyongyang on their own," Tae said. "There was also an instance where, after the death of a diplomat husband, the spouse and children refused to return to North Korea and disappeared."

Tae also addressed claims that North Korea's elite deliberately exaggerates the inter-Korean economic gap. Economic reports typically estimate the economic disparity between the two Koreas as 60:1 or 50:1.

"When I was in North Korea and spoke with individuals from economic research institutes, they perceived the gap to be as large as 120:1," Tae recalled.

He emphasized that North Korean authorities have instilled a fear of unification among their citizens, telling them that if the two Koreas were to reunify, "North Korea would become a slave to South Korean capital," suggesting that this was intentionally spread to dampen the North Korean people’s aspirations for unification.

Tae, appointed as the chief of the secretariat of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council in July, is the first North Korean defector to be named to a vice-ministerial position in South Korea. As the chief of the secretariat, Tae advises the president on policies aimed at achieving peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]