North Korea: Kim Jong Un warns Seoul in New Year message

During high-level talks between high-ranking officials from North and South Korea held this past August, Kim Yang-gon was on the North Korean delegation along with Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, regarded as the second most powerful person in North Korea.

CBS reports that there had been no signs of factional tensions involving Kim Yang Gon within the North Korean administration prior to his death.

“DPRK-South Korea relations and the unification issue should be solved with the very strength of people, according to Korean ethnic nationalism ideology, befitting the (Korean) people’s independent will and demand”, said Kim.

“We are willing to have talks in an open-minded manner with anyone who wants peace and unification”, Kim said, according to Yonhap News agency.

The last three officials who were killed in vehicle crashes all died under the reign of Mr Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il.

Commuters walk past a television screen showing a broadcast of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s New Year speech, at a railroad station in Seoul on January 1, 2016. That said, other North Korean elites may now be more wary of getting into their cars.

Unlike a year ago, the North Korean leader did not remark on the regime’s nuclear ambitions. Andrei Lankov explained that it is unlikely that so many car-related deaths could be occurring as genuine “accidents” in North Korea, a country of few cars and tight security for officials.

Kim, however, said the accord was made possible due to the strength of the North’s armed forces.

Although he vowed to improve North Korea’s struggling economy and living standards the speech centred around the country’s military strength.

In his very first public address, at a military parade in April 2012, Kim had said he was determined that North Koreans would “never have to tighten their belts again”.

Kim Yang-gon’s death in a vehicle accident might be interpreted as paying the ultimate price for the collapse of the inter-Korean mini-detente following the August agreement.

Analysts in Seoul say strained ties between the rival Koreas could continue following the unexpected death of Kim, who had long handled relations with South Korea.

In a speech to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling communist Workers’ Party on October 10, Kim said he is prepared to wage war against the United States if necessary. His message was instead conveyed in the form of an editorial in North Korea’s major newspapers.