From Thu Jul 10 09:35:17 1997
>Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 09:35:04 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Reply-To: mike.potter@artecon.com
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: N Korea targeting US CV/CVN?
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>[Following is apparently from the Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean
>enterprise. It arrived from a reliable source but without information
>about the article’s author, its copyright status, or its credibility.]
>
>Defector Hwang says N. Korea sees war as way to unity
>_____________________________________________________
>
>SEOUL, May 9, 1997 — North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop has told
>South Korean intelligence officials that North Korea’s leadership
>believes a war is the only way to unify the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap
>News Agency reported Friday.
>
>Kwon Young Hae, head of South Korea’s intelligence organization, told a
>parliament intelligence committee that Hwang said in a debriefing that
>the Pyongyang leadership puts the highest priority on the country’s
>military power, Yonhap said.
>
>Hwang was a secretary of Pyongyang’s ruling Workers Party of Korea when
>he defected to the South Korean Embassy in Beijing in February after his
>visit to Japan. He arrived in Seoul on April 20 after spending a month
>in the Philippines.
>
>Hwang also told South Korean intelligence officials that he believes
>North Korea has developed nuclear weapons, in view of its refusal to
>accept international inspection of its nuclear facilities and its
>declaration of withdrawal from the International Atomic Energy Agency in
>March 1993.
>
>Kim Chong Ho, chairman of the parliament intelligence committee, quoted
>Kwon, head of the Agency for National Security Planning, as saying,
>”Hwang said Kim Jong Il has ordered all-out and full support for the
>military after the death of his father Kim Il Sung.”
>
>Kim Jong Il has become the de facto North Korean leader since Kim Il
>Sung died in July 1994, even though he has not assumed his father’s
>posts as state president and head of the ruling Workers Party of Korea.
>
>Hwang also reportedly said Kim Jong Il repeatedly stressed the
>importance of the armed forces, saying the “military is the major pillar
>of national unification.”
>
>Hwang told South Korean intelligence officials that Kim Jong Il has
>ordered all government agencies to step up war preparedness and an
>atmosphere of preparing for war has become overwhelming since he became
>supreme commander of the armed forces in December 1991.
>
>Hwang reportedly said the North Korean leadership is 100% confident of
>winning a war and even ordinary citizens are sure of their victory in a
>war.
>
>North Korea had plans to send a suicide squad to sink a U.S. aircraft
>carrier so as to stoke up antiwar sentiment in the United States, Hwang
>reportedly told South Korean intelligence officials.
>
>North Korea is capable of manufacturing all the weapons and equipment
>needed to carry out a war and is ready for mass production of missiles,
>artillery and military helicopters, Hwang reportedly said.
>
>Pyongyang has simplified the chain of command in the armed forces to
>make it easy to start a war quickly, according to the intelligence
>chief.
>
>Kwon cited Hwang as saying that Kim Jong Il can start a war by directly
>giving the order to an officer in charge of military operations at the
>general staff of the army without going through the minister of the
>People’s Armed Forces.
>
>Kim also extended the period of mandatory military service to 13 years
>from seven, Kwon said.
>
>Touching upon the decision-making process in North Korea, Hwang said Kim
>Jong Il alone makes the final decision and senior officials are just
>like “puppets” and dare not present their own ideas.
>
>Hwang also reportedly said about 10 people from the party,
>administration and the military are at the center of Kim Jong Il’s
>”closed-door government.”
>
>Among them are Chang Song Taek, Kim’s brother-in-law and deputy bureau
>director at the Workers Party of Korea, Kim Gi Nam and Kim Guk Tae,
>secretaries of the party, Cho Myong Rok, vice marshal and chief of the
>General Political Bureau of the army, and acting Premier Hong Song Nam.
>
>–
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