By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea--North and South Korea have held their first “high-level talks” in almost seven years, in an apparent effort to improve strained relations at the suggestion of the North.

The talks, held Wednesday at a border village, came as South Korea and the United States prepared to engage in another round of military drills that have antagonized Pyongyang, Reuters reported.

The meeting was set up with unusual speed and great secrecy at the North’s suggestion last week. This is just the latest example of conflicting signals from Pyongyang, which abruptly cancelled an invitation for a US envoy to visit a few weeks ago.

The North is expected to repeat demands for the South and the United States to abandon their military drills. Both sides have numerous incentives to seek a deal that could break their long stalemate.

“For the North, if it comes back with an accomplishment in terms of improved South-North ties, it will mean a better atmosphere for Kim Jong-un to visit China and a justification to pursue high-level talks with the United States,” Cheong Seong-chang, an expert at the Sejong Institute outside Seoul, reported.

Kim is believed to be plotting a visit to China, Pyongyang’s largest ally and main benefactor, to reinforce his legitimacy as dictator in the eyes of a skeptical international community. Kim took power when his father died suddenly in 2010.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from the South Korean capital Seoul, said while the atmosphere surrounding negotiations appeared “calm,” any major announcement was unlikely to be brought out in the near future.

“We’re all a bit in the dark” as to the content of the discussions, correspondents said.

Seoul officials told the Associated Press that the meeting was requested by the North, which has launched a recent “charm offensive” after raising tensions last spring with threats to fire nuclear-tipped missiles at Seoul and Washington.

Pyongyang, which has repeatedly vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal and further develop nuclear technology, is trying to build nuclear-armed missiles that can reach the continental US. Most experts say the country has yet to master the technology needed to mobilize an atomic bomb via missile.

In addition to demanding a halt to the military drills, North Korea was expected to demand that South Korea agree to restart a lucrative joint tourism project and increase humanitarian aid efforts.

South Korea, meanwhile, was looking to discuss ways to ensure that planned reunions of families separated a half-century ago in the Korean War went smoothly, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.

The South Korean delegation is led by President Park Geun-hye’s deputy national security adviser, while North Korea has sent its second-highest ranking official in the ruling Workers’ Party department, who is also in charge of maintaining ties with the South.

The meeting is the highest level in years between the Koreas, which held a series of similar meetings in 2007.

For further information, please see:

ABC–Koreas Hold Senior-Level Meeting at Border Village–11 Feburary 2014

BBC News–North and South Korea hold rare high-level talks–12 February 2014

Al Jazeera–Koreas hold rare talks to ease tensions–12 February 2014

CNN–North and South Korea to hold ‘high-level’ meeting–11 February 2014

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea–In another sign of an escalating power struggle amongst North Korea’s elite, South Korea’s intelligence agency reported Tuesday the “No. 2 man” in the isolated North appeared to have been disposed from power.

 

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told South Korean lawmakers that Jang Song Thaek, uncle of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, was “recently ousted from his position” as Vice Chairman of North Korea’s powerful National Defense Commission, and that “two of his closest confidantes — Ri Yong Ha and Jang Soo-Kil — were publicly executed in mid-November,” according to opposition lawmaker Jung Cheong Rae.

Still unverified, Jang’s ousting could represent the most serious political shakeup in North Korea since former leader Kim Jong-Il’s death in December 2011.

Jang was widely regarded as second in command in the North Korean leadership, owing to his blood-link to the ruling family, and his visible presence abroad. He married the daughter of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung in the early 1970s and was a close confidant of late leader Kim Jong-il.

“The NIS has assessed the cause of Jang’s fallout to be an internal power struggle,” Cho Won-jin, a conservative lawmaker who was briefed by the NIS, told reporters. “It was a power struggle to consolidate Kim Jong-un’s one man rule.”

Jang was known to have played a critical role in ensuring the smooth succession of his nephew into his role as the head of North Korea’s intelligence and police agencies. Jang was also known as one of the more pro-market reformers among North Korea’s powerful elite.

His influence was on display during a state visit to China in August 2012, on which he brought along fifty North Korean representatives to discuss the two countries’ cooperation in special economic zones near the border. He was received by the then-Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabo.

Some South Korean experts suggest the instability created by this alleged power struggle could lead the isolated nuclear-armed state to take even greater provocative actions on the world stage, in an effort to quell discord and reinforce unity, and reinvigorate the North’s international perception.

“In looking at past cases, when the North Korean regime becomes unstable, there could be more frequent provocations directed against the South,” Yang Moo-jin, a North Korean expert at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. “If so, then the South-North Korean relations could worsen and the tension on the Korean peninsula will heighten.”

Other experts were not surprised by the reports of Jang’s ouster.

“The signs have been there for some time that Jang was fading. He has been appearing less and less frequently in Kim Jong Un’s presence, or indeed, at all. If that change in his previously high-profile visibility was not caused by health problems, it suggested a political problem,” said one expert, who spoke to CBS News. 

The expert also suggested that Jang’s appearance as a “top leader” was hyperbolic, and indicated that the regime is, and always has been, top-centric.

“There is no power in North Korea except that at the top. From the moment Kim Jong Il died almost two years ago, Jang was vulnerable. He probably had a lot of enemies, but he no longer had any top cover,” said the expert. “It wouldn’t be surprising if Kim Jong Il had told his son to watch Jang carefully, and to cut him down when the time came.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News–North Korea powerbroker ‘dismissed’— 3 December 2013

Washington Post–Kim Jong Un’s uncle ‘very likely’ removed from power— 3 December 2013

Bangkok Post–N. Korean leader’s powerbroker uncle ousted, says South Korea— 3 December 2013

CBS News–North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un reportedly sacks his uncle Jang Seong-thaek, No. 2 man in regime— 3 December 2013

Al Jazeera–N Korean leader’s powerbroker uncle ‘sacked’— 3 December 2013