The actors behind North's bellicosity

North Korea watchers here see tightly orchestrated moves by Pyeongyang behind the escalating intensity of threats over the North's nuclear program. At the center of the coordinated action, they said, are the North's National Defense Commission and its chairman, Kim Jong-il, who is also the nation's leader.

This observation was further highlighted yesterday with a Radio Pyeongyang broadcast that their leader had declared "a do-or-die" situation and called for a "fight to the end" immediately following a January statement by U.S. President George W. Bush that the North was a part of the international axis of evil. On the 11th anniversary Tuesday of Kim Jong-il's accession to the chairmanship of the defense commission, the vice chairman of the North's highest decision-making body, Kim Il-chol, said the country's sovereignty and survival is "under the worst threat ever" and the situation cannot be "left unprepared for."

The defense commission is the center of the North's decision-making, and propaganda is shared by the country's foreign ministry and state news agency. North Korea experts in the South said the foreign ministry's operation is directed by the first deputy minister, Kang Sok-ju. The country's mouthpieces, the Korea Central News Agency and the Rodong Shinmun, have been intensifying the war of words recently. The Rodong is also at the forefront of internal propaganda. "We may be called to go on a march of adversity," the newspaper said over the weekend.

State propaganda has revisited calls for the withdrawal of the American military from the South, demands that had been toned down considerably since the June 2000 summit meeting between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's leader. A large anti-American protest in Pyeongyang is scheduled for Saturday.

An official with the Unification Ministry, which formulates the South's North Korea policy, said yesterday internal propaganda is likely to be stepped up once international sanctions against the North appear imminent. "It may involve an emergency defense posture," he said, "intended to maximize internal tension, also."

by Lee Young-jong