NEWSWEEK: How do you rate Kim Jong Il’s summit performance? KIM: Fantastic. He looked self-confident and relaxed and showed no embarrassment. As he waited on the red carpet for [South Korean President] Kim Dae Jung to step out from his airplane, it was like he was saying: “Come on, baby! Don’t be afraid. This is not a devil’s world.”
Many Western analysts say Kim Jong Il is a terrorist and a communist stalwart who lacks vision. Are they wrong? Totally wrong. If Kim Jong Il were a terrorist, he would have ordered the capture of [United States presidential envoy] William Perry when he came to Pyongyang last year. If he were a terrorist, he would have ordered the shooting down of South Korea’s Air Force One as it carried Kim Dae Jung and his party to Pyongyang. But he gave him red-carpet treatment, even red wine. Wine is a sign of friendship.
What’s next for North-South relations? First, a series of talks about reuniting separated families, then the setting up of a hot line and an exchange of military observers and economic delegations. [There will also be] a discussion about business joint ventures. I expect South Korea will scale down its military maneuvers. If everything goes well, Kim Jong Il will definitely go to Seoul.
When? If everything goes well, within a couple of months. This is not a diplomatic [ploy]. It is his real intention. No games.
Your book forecasts reunification within five years. How? One of Kim Jong Il’s plans is to achieve a general agreement of intent for peaceful reunification by 2003. After that it will take two years to work out details for a loose confederation. Not institutional unification, simply territorial unification. There would be one central government with foreign policy and military [authority]. But the police, education and economics would be controlled by local governments in the North and South. This is one possible scenario. Kim Jong Il’s ambition is simply to leave a legacy of reunification.
What about U.S. troops in South Korea? We propose a phased pullout over three to five years. And we propose that the South Korean government organize a fantastic send-off party for the American GIs. They should be presented medals in recognition for their service to the South Korean people.
That’s ironic, given that American GIs fought troops led by Kim Jong Il’s father, Kim Il Sung. That was the past. North Korea is proposing to put the memories of war to rest.
Washington and Tokyo want to improve ties with Pyongyang, but they’re nervous about the North’s ballistic missiles and suspected A-bomb program. As relations warm, won’t North Korea feel the need for constraint? North Korea’s missile capacity is a joke compared to America’s, so why worry about it?
What if Russian President Vladimir Putin asks that the North halt its missile program when he visits Pyongyang next month? We are a sovereign state. We have no reason to listen to Russian or American demands.
But it seems quite natural that when countries get closer, they discuss sensitive issues and make requests. Presumably, the Russians won’t come empty-handed. They’d ask for a missile freeze and offer help in other areas. If you ask me, the Russians are no longer in any position to help North Korea. They are too poor, too weak. Why is Putin coming? He is scared of America’s plan for NMD [national missile defense]. And he wants to ask Kim Jong Il’s advice on how to deal with the Americans.
Is North Korea ready to change? We have already changed, but the outside world doesn’t realize it. North Korea is serious about experimenting with capitalism. We must prepare to swim and catch fish in the capitalist sea.
