By Kim Myong Chol
"Self-evidently, given the presence of foreign troops in Korean soil, neither the freedom and independence of our people as a nation nor the free expression of their will can be taken for granted any longer."
The successful completion of these goals will vindicate him as a legitimate successor to the Paekdu cause, referring to the Mount Paektu, revered by Koreans as holy. This Paekdu tradition was established by the founding father Kim Il-sung, renowned woman general Kim Jong-suk and Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-eun will certainly be counted among the very few greatest national heroes and patriots in Korea's 5,000-year history. He will emerge one of the world's most brilliant statesmen and military leaders.
The American military presence in South Korea is the foremost cause of the division of the Land of Morning into North and South Korea, an irrelevant remnant of the Cold War.
"Comrade Kim Jong-Un is a multi-gifted general of the Mt Paekdu type. He is second to none in upholding the leadership of the Party and the Leader, has a strong faith and will, intestinal fortitude and fire in his belly. He feels deep moral obligations to revolutionary comrades in arms, is wily and resourceful, displays superb leadership qualities. He is outstanding in arts and martial arts as well as versed in military affairs." Late North Korea leader Kim Jong-il, Rodong Sinmun, January 18, 2012
North Korean founding father Kim Il-sung , January 4, 1967
"The American military presence in South Korea is a primary factor in making the Korean revolution complicated, difficult and long-protracted in nature." Kim il-sung, October 5, 1966
The Korean Central News Agency reported on February 20 that the Political Bureau of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee (WKPCC) will call a Party conference in mid-April to complete the installation of supreme commander Kim Jong-Un as new supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), ideological, political and military.
With precedents as a guide, it is most likely that the party conference will name Kim Jong-Un to the twin posts of general secretary of the WPKCC and chairman of its military committee. A parallel session of the legislative Supreme People's Assembly is expected to appoint him as chairman of the National Defense Commission.
Kim Jong-Un is currently a member of the presidium of the WPKCC's Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the WPKCC's Military Committee.
Kim Jong-Un is likely aiming to complete three priority strategic policy objectives left unfinished by the late Kim Jong-il:
- Neutralization and termination of American military presence
- Peaceful bi-system reunification of Korea
- Upgrading DPRK to most advanced country status
Contemporary Kwanggaeto the Great
Kim Jong-Un may well be called a contemporary Kwanggaeto, a leader in the 37BC-668AD Koguryo era, as the men share four key traits.
Firstly, the two leaders started young. Kwanggaeto, the 19th king of Koguryo, rose to the throne at the age of 17. Kim Jong-eun is aged 28.
Similarly, Kim Il-sung founded the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army at the age of 20. At the age of 31 he arrived at the Far Eastern Military Command, accompanied by a much older guerrilla at the invitation of Russia. His cherubic face prompted a Russian officer to mistake the two for each other. When Kim Il-sung was 37, he led North Korea to fight the Korean War (1950-1953) against the US-spearheaded international invasion force.
Secondly, Kwanggaeto was also a brilliant military leader admired by their much-elder military and government leaders and benevolent statesmen who consider their population as their children.
Thirdly, the two share a fiery pride in the independence of their countries as a land for heaven-sent people and readiness to show no mercy in punishing foreign invaders.
Fourthly and most importantly, Kim Jong-Un's ascension is certain to herald a golden age for North Korea, in the way Kwanggaeto the Great led Koguryo to expand into a huge empire comprising most of Manchuria, parts of Inner Mongolia and Siberia.
There is every likelihood that Kim Jong-Un will accomplish the long-elusive widely shared ardent desire of the Korean people to have their ancestral Land of Morning Calm reunified and steer a reunified Korea into millennium of prosperity.
Neutralization and phase-out American military presence
An eventual neutralization of the American military presence in South Korea and its quiet phase-out will top Kim Jong-eun's long list of shining achievements.
The most compelling case for the US military disengagement from South Korea rests on the following reasons:
The American military presence in South Korea is the foremost cause of the division of the Land of Morning into North and South Korea, an irrelevant remnant of the Cold War.
The first requirement of any peaceful reintegration of Korea is terminating the US military presence in South Korea.
The US military presence has no justification in light of international law. The only ground cited to justify it is the October 1, 1953 South Korea-US Mutual Defense Treaty, under which Seoul grants the US "the right to dispose" its troops in and about South Korea. The wording is not "station" nor "keep" but ambiguous "dispose."
The treaty in itself is in material breach of the July 27, 1953 Korean armistice agreement which provides for the withdrawal of all foreign troops.
The presence of American troops carries the permanent threat of igniting a volatile flashpoint into a full-scale shooting war in a teeming Asian city, a nuclear war between two nuclear powers, the DPRK and the US. Unlike the first Korean War localized within Korean borders, resumed hostilities will automatically expand into a thermonuclear war to be fought over the US mainland.
Fourthly, the presence of American troops means that despite its economic success story South Korea is nothing but a client state far removed from sovereign status with one% allied with the US accumulating wealth at the expense of 99% and more than 40 South Koreans killing themselves each day, as the BBC reported on September 5, 2011.
Founding father Kim Il-sung is credited with becoming the first leader in the world to militarily defeat the US that vanquished Nazi Germany and militarist Japan. The Americans are left with a lasting traumatic inferiority complex to the North Koreans.
However, Korea was left in ruins with millions killed and wounded. The US troops stayed in South Korea.
Kim Jong-il shrewdly exploited US fears, outfoxing the trigger-happy Americans in the six rounds of nuclear showdown without an actual fight, keeping Korea and Northeast Asia out of a nuclear conflagration.
The beefed up frontline artillery units of the Korean People's Army and its acquisition of nuclear weapons forced the US troops to retreat from the Demilitarized Zone into Pyongtaek south of Seoul. The KPA frontline artillery units are still able of inflicting mighty precision-strikes on the new American base.
New Supreme Commander Kim Jong-Un will go farther as he is an adroit manipulator of carrots and sticks, throwing sprat to catch a whale. He is now clearly within striking distance of outmaneuvering the Americans into ending their military presence on their own accord and asking to negotiate a peace treaty and normalized relations between the two enemies.
Kim Jong-Un will uphold the military-first policy and relentlessly continue to supply the armed forces with newer missiles capable of delivering precision-strike on any strategic targets on the southernmost tip of South Korea. The global strike force of the KPA will soon complete its shift to road-mobile ICBMs which put the whole of the Metropolitan USA within effective range.
