North Korea Says Kim Jong Un Led Nuclear Testing Effort

North Korea on Friday claimed that new regime head Kim Jong Un had led previous nuclear weapon test blast operations, in accordance with regime efforts to position the young ruler as a decisive commander, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 18).

The aspiring nuclear power has conducted two nuclear tests to date -- one in 2006 that was judged to be a largely a failure and another in 2009 that is understood to have been more successful.

Kim Jong Un assumed power after his father, Kim Jong Il, suffered a fatal heart attack in late 2011. Not much is known about the younger Kim other than he was quickly given a number of senior military titles and government positions beginning in 2010 (see GSN, Sept. 29, 2010). He is not known to have had much military experience prior to those appointments, though state media are now crediting him with spearheading North Korea's missile interception operations in the buildup to the country's controversial 2009 long-range rocket test (see GSN, Jan. 9).

The state-controlled Uriminzokkiri website said Kim "frightened" the nation's adversaries by overseeing previous nuclear trials. The website did not state which tests Kim was behind.

The speed at which Kim Jong Un was named to senior positions and took on the title of North Korean "supreme leader" stands in contrast to his father, who spent two decades studying and preparing to take over rule from his own father -- regime founder Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il waited three years after his father's death in 1994 to officially take over as supreme leader.

A high-ranking Pyongyang official in an interview with AP asserted the younger Kim had trained under Kim Jong Il for years and had assisted his father in making several important fiscal and defense decisions (Associated Press/Google News, Jan. 20).

The United States and its allies are endeavoring to prod the Stalinist state back to long-paralyzed regional negotiations focused on permanent North Korean denuclearization. The six-nation discussions encompass China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States; talks were last held in December 2008 after making limited progress in shuttering the North's nuclear operations.

The South Korean government on Friday again urged Pyongyang to re-engage in discussions and received support from the European Union for its efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear impasse, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

"South Korea expects North Korea to quickly restore stability and react positively to dialogue," Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said in remarks to European envoys posted in Seoul.

"The European Union is very much committed to supporting efforts aimed at achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the improvement of human rights in the (North) and the positive development of inter-Korean relations," European Union Ambassador Tomasz Kozlowski said.

Pyongyang has refused for some months to have any dealings with the conservative government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and has placed all blame for the poor state of bilateral relations on Seoul.

"In case the chance of resuming the six-nation talks disappears, Lee Myung-bak's government will be chiefly blamed for it," North Korean state-controlled media said in a statement provided by the regime's Foreign Ministry.

Efforts to relaunch the multinational aid-for-denuclearization negotiations have been at an impasse over preconditions set down by Seoul, Tokyo and Washington that North Korea must first halt its uranium enrichment, among other good-faith gestures. Pyongyang has repeatedly refused to accept any such preconditions, though there have been reports of a tentative deal reached late last year with the Obama administration that would see the North halt its uranium work in exchange for a shipment of badly needed food (Yonhap News Agency, Jan. 20).