Notes on Kim Jong-un's Victory Day speech published at KCNA Watch.

I noticed a couple of things about Kim Jong-un's speech published at KCNA Watch. Most notably:

"I have already made it clear that we should be ready both for talks and confrontation and more fully for confrontation in particular in order to reliably guarantee the security of our state."

Criticism of the new Yoon Seok-yeol administration in South Korea, in Kim Jong-un's speech is not too far off the mark. How does one strike a nuclear North Korea preemptively with conventional forces? There is no conventional military solution to the unresolved war in North Korea. South Korea is conventionally superior. North Korea compensates for its relative weakness with new missile designs capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Yoon's openly provocative approach to the North is off the mark. Yet, North Korea has itself to blame because it conducted extensive missile testing during the South Korean presidential campaign earlier this year, lending credibility to Yoon's outdated and impractical cold war approach. This contributed to Yoon's election victory by a razor thin margin, substantially comprised of the overwhelming vote in favor of Yoon by the elderly (over 60 voters).

Another portion of the speech that directly deals with "nuclear weapons" threats:

They are brazen-faced enough to advocate "peace based on strength" and "security based on strength," and have put up a bold front, claiming that they would not hesitate in launching a "preemptive strike" to neutralize the war deterrent of our state.

At this very moment, south Korea is growing more frantic to develop weapons and strengthen its defence industry in a bid to recover, even a little, its military inferiority as compared with ours, and it is planning to bring in nuclear strategic weapons of the United States in large numbers and expanding war drills under various pretexts.

However, we should see that the more frequent vainglorious remarks and various hues of shameful conducts recently made by the south Korean authorities with regard to their security come from their inevitable sense of uneasiness that they have to live under the very nose of a nuclear state.

https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1659013975-413691703/respected-comrade-kim-jong-un-makes-speech-at-celebration-of-69th-anniversary-of-great-victory-in-war/

It's interesting that the AP article on the Victory Day "speech" finds it necessary to refer back to an April speech to find more threatening remarks from the North Korean leader. I tend to agree with the analysis of this Korean Herald article:

No saber-rattling for N.Korea ‘Victory Day,’ but US repeats warning over nuke test
By Ji Da-gyum
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220727000697

North Korea held a politically charged event to mark its “Victory Day” in the Korean War, though its celebrations were notably absent of saber rattling and bellicose rhetoric from the country’s leader.

Last comment: This remark was made by academic expert quoted in the AP article:

.“Kim’s rhetoric inflates external threats to justify his militarily focused and economically struggling regime...”

Kim threatens to use nukes amid tensions with US, S. Korea
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-seoul-south-korea-nuclear-weapons-e285be60ef404092fe3324748fa60707

The same can certainly be said for the struggling Yoon Seok-yeol administration in the south, which is remarkably absent of any meaningful policies to address the current economic hardships there. Yoon's policies thus far consist of red baiting, persecuting political rivals, constructing an authoritarian state, pursuing privatization of state assets, and blindly deferring to US and Japanese policy. He is widely regarded as an amateur statesmen. The prior administration's policy toward North Korea might be summarized as putting South Korean national interests first while strengthening its military and the alliance with the US. The Yoon faction's policy might summarized as a default mode opting for outdated cold war rhetoric and unilateral concessions to the US and Japan damaging to South Korean interests. As one former South Korean four star general put it, "Yoon is driving forward while only looking in the rear view mirror."