The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: TomSea on August 19, 2019, 03:09:40 pm
-
Late North Korean leader wanted US troops to stay in Korea even after unification
The Korea Herald
The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il supported the continued presence of US troops on the Korean Peninsula even after the eventual unification of the two Koreas, a veteran lawmaker said Sunday.
Recalling the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000, Rep. Park Jie-won of the Alliance for Alternative Politics of Change and Hope said the late Kim, the father of current North Korean leader Jong-un, told then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung that the US forces should remain on the peninsula to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia even after unification.
(http://res.heraldm.com/content/image/2019/08/18/20190818000181_0.jpg)
In this June 2000 image, then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (left) and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung shake hands in Pyongyang. (AP)
During the summit on June 15 of that year, Park quoted Kim Jong-il as saying that “China, Russia and Japan have historically and geographically annexed our territory but the US is located far away and has not annexed other countries in its history.â€
Read more at: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190818000206 (http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190818000206)
Someone told me Chairman Kim has been repeating what his father and grandfather did per these nuclear negotiations with other presidential administrations. I said that was not so... but now, that I look at it. Maybe a bit. It does seem to be a little better now but plenty of room for debate.