By Kim Myong-bai

The third succession process of North Korea has, in actuality, been completed with Kim Jong-un assuming the post of the first secretary of the Korea Workers’ Party.

It is a natural phenomenon arising from Kim Il-sung’s despotism in which the ruling power of the regime exclusively still concentrates on him, their “Great Leader.” The problem is that the economic crisis, the Achilles’ heel of North Korea, still remains unresolved despite the outward completion of the succession process, because the economic crisis is an unavoidable phenomenon deriving from the “juche” ideology, the backbone of the Great Leader’s despotism.

There is no possibility for the North Korean authorities to discard the juche ideology as long as they give first priority to the maintenance of the regime itself, and, therefore, there is no way for the North Korean government to resolve the economic crisis.

That is the reason why the North Korean authorities resort to economic assistance extorted from the international community through all kinds of illegal transactions such as drugs, smuggling, forgery, the military tension, and the nuclear menace, binding people’s economy to the level of subsistence and survival.

Such criminal activities are, however, no longer effective, as the economic sanctions of the international community against North Korea intensify, and the recognition that there is no hope for North Korea to abdicate its nuclear weapons program widely diffuses as time passes.

The North Korean regime must be desperate for a breakthrough to solve its economic destitution without any restraints and burdens attached to it. That is the reason why Kim Jong-un’s regime will bet all in South Korea’s 2012 presidential election to help the appearance of a “pro-North Korean” government who will resume ``the unconditional give-away policy to North Korea” through a return to the Sunshine Policy as in the case of the two “pro-North Korean” governments in the past.

As a result of the persistent political operations by the North Korean authorities in South Korean society for more than half a century, especially by the furtive encouragement of the past two consecutive “pro-North Korean governments”, and even by ``the pragmatic, ideology-free policy” of the present government, ``the 3 (leftist), 3 (rightist), 4 (centrist)” composition of ideology is already solidly rooted in South Korean society, and, as a result, the opposition party and pro-North Korean organizations have already accepted “the grand unity of the progressives against the conservatives” proposal manipulated by North Korea’s clandestine organizations in preparation for the 2012 presidential election.

The Kim Jong-un regime is presumed to have political schemes to use a pro-North Korean regime of South Korea as a proxy to carry out the revolutionary goal of North Korea to communize the South. In view of the fact that the leftist and pro-North Korea parties have already declared they want to repeal of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement as a priority on their political agenda, the first thing of a pro-North Korea government is expected to stage the most violent anti-American vigil, as has never been before, to arouse anti-South Korean sentiment among the Americans including even the conservative media, and to press the government to withdraw U.S. forces from the South.

As long as the appearance of a pro-North Korean administration in the 2012 presidential election is the only way for the Kim Jong-un regime to kill two birds (the communization of South Korea and the resolution of the economic crisis) with one stone, it is quite natural for Kim Jong-un to bet all on the presidential election.

The South-North relationship is not a competition between conservatives and progressives as is the case in other countries, but a zero-sum game that divides life or death between the two Koreas. The destiny of our fatherland is on the precipice in need of genuine patriotism and steadfast security consciousness of the people to keep national identity of free democracy against the clandestine operations of North Korea.

Kim Myong-bai, an adjunct professor at Hoseo University, is the former Korean ambassador to Brazil. His email address is mailto:mbkim77@naver.com.