Photo : YONHAP News
Ri Il-gyu, a former counselor of political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba who had defected to South Korea last November, said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has adopted a party-centered political system due to concerns over a potential military coup.
At a forum hosted by the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul on Friday, Ri said public sentiment towards Kim has completely deteriorated amid increasing state control and discipline following the pandemic, as well as global sanctions.
The former diplomat also assessed that discontent and anxiety among the North’s elites have peaked, with senior officials being continuously replaced and demoted under the Kim regime.
Hyun In-taek who served as Unification Minister during the Lee Myung-bak administration who was also attending the forum said, public sentiment in the North seems to have deteriorated compared to the early years of Kim’s leadership.
Ewha Womans University Professor Park Won-gon, however, does not expect the Kim regime to topple anytime soon, assessing the durability of the regime is being maintained through a change in the system of administration of the state and fulfilling nuclear development goals.