During a trip to China, Kim Jong Un seemed to be "completely reborn"! He made a shocking gamble to the world: Give me ten years and I will give you a brand new North Korea!
This is by no means empty talk. While holding "Mars 20" to deter the world, Kim Jong-un is trying to exchange "forced peace" for a ten-year economic development window. He is skillfully using geopolitics to "dance tango in chains" within the system with the power of China and Russia.
How will this high-risk transition change North Korea’s transportation and can he find a breakthrough for North Korea under heavy contracts?
Don't cause trouble or be afraid of it
North Korea’s strategic logic carried out a bold subversion.
In the past, nuclear weapons were the trump card used to fight, but now, it is being transformed into a political ticket to ensure peaceful development.
The "Hwasong-20" missile unveiled at the celebration is the clearest signal. Its range of more than 13,000 kilometers means that the entire United States is under its deterrence.
Combined with the harder defensive solid-fuel technology, it was no longer a mere self-defense, but a letter directly to the White House with only five words: “Don’t disturb me.”
Kim Jong-un's abacus is very precise. He uses the gesture of "I have the ability to destroy you at any time" to make the promise of "I don't want to do it for the time being" very weighty.
The purpose of this "forced peace" is to exchange for a precious ten-year window period, a "strategic buffer period" that allows him to gradually transfer huge military resources to domestic economic construction.
The international environment also gave him this opportunity.
The United States 'attention was firmly restrained by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the tariff issue against China, and it had no time to look outside.
At the celebration in Pyongyang, Russian Security Council Vice-President Medvedev and the Chinese Prime Minister, who visited for the first time in 16 years, came in succession, undoubtedly putting a “double assurance” on North Korea’s strategy.
North Korea is skillfully using its geographical value to hand in a "vote certificate" to China and Russia in exchange for their firm support in diplomacy and security.
This demonstration of "brotherhood", coupled with the continuous strengthening of U.S.-Korean alliance relations, has given the situation on the peninsula a peculiar stability.
Even the pragmatists in South Korea, also hoping to stabilize the situation, to reassure the development of the economy, Kim Jong-un seems to be saying: I promise not to bother, also ask you not to come to me to confuse.
Borrow someone else’s chickens to make their own eggs
At the Welsh Tower Art Theatre, the concert of the delegation of Russian artists was applauded, and the performance of the singer Shaman pushed the atmosphere to the climax.
This is not only a cultural exchange, but also a vivid footnote to the "New Three-Self" route.
"Self-reliance" is the foundation of North Korea, but Kim Jong-un is making a profound revision of this concept.
The "old three selves" of the Kim Il Sung era emphasized political autonomy, economic self-reliance, and national defense and self-defense, a kind of almost closed self-circulation.
Kim Jong-un's "New Three Selves" has quietly added new words such as "modernization", behind which is a great change from closure to pragmatism.
The most dramatic scene occurred in the treatment of the Ministry of Health.
Kim Jong-un directly abolished the bureaucracy in public and announced that he would build a "North Korean version of CDC."
This loud slap in the face not only hits bureaucracy, but also opens a hole for a larger-scale change.
North Korea's medical technology and pharmaceutical level have always been a shortcoming.
With the medical reform as a breakthrough, the real intention is to pave the way for the large-scale introduction of advanced technology and equipment in countries such as Russia.
By revitalizing an industry, it will drive the upgrading of the entire industrial system.
This is the essence of the "new three-self": selectively use external resources under the banner of "independence".
Of course, the so-called “new self-reliance” cannot be separated from external blood transfusions.
Russia's downside in key technologies, as well as the continuous economic cooperation projects with China, are the lifeline of this ambitious plan, and also let the long-waved unilateral sanctions of the United States, the effect of great discount.
But North Korea has a complicated mentality about this.
The historical lessons of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s made them deeply vigilant against external aid, for fear of repeating the same mistakes and being "stuck" by others.
Therefore, all actions must be carried out carefully under the politically correct banner of "self-reliance".
Dance tango in shackles
This promise of "building a socialist paradise in ten years" has been injected into North Korean society like a shot in the arm.
It is both a political statement to the international community, hoping to stabilize external expectations.
It is also an internal political mobilization order to use the tangible vision of "prosperity" to unite people's hearts and respond to the challenges brought by long-term economic difficulties.
The road to heaven, however, necessarily requires profound internal changes, but this is in natural conflict with the absolute stability ofining the existing system.
Kim Jong-un’s reform is more like a dance on the steel thread of the system, like a dance of thin ice.
He also acknowledged that the country has “systemic problems and structural contradictions.”
The challenge is realistic and concrete: industrial upgrading requires a large number of skilled workers, but North Korea lacks this group.
Economic opening inevitably brings a mental shock, and the leadership is deeply afraid of it and fears of out of control.
The vast bureaucratic system, like a giant sponge, dissipates the momentum of reform.
The magnificent scene of the celebration well concealed this inner tension.
Whether it is the grand event at the May Day Stadium or the attendance of international guests such as Surin, Secretary of the High-Level Delegation of Vietnam, they are all working together to build a confident, stable and open picture.
But behind this picture is the fragile reality of North Korea’s “steel thread” between development and control.
conclusion
The abolition of the Ministry of Health is only the first step. Whether Russia's pharmaceutical equipment can be successfully implemented and whether the cooperation projects with China can be truly fulfilled are the touchstones to test the determination of this reform.
Kim Jong-un's "Ten-Year Paradise" plan is a carefully calculated but extremely risky national strategic transformation. He tries to find an unprecedented road between the three contradictions of military deterrence and peaceful development, national self-esteem and practical foreign aid, and institutional reform and absolute control.
For North Korea, the next decade will be a period of strategic opportunities, as well as an outbreak of internal contradictions.
Whether the living standards of the people of North Korea will eventually be improved is the only criterion for measuring the success of this battle.The world will continue to pay attention to this unprecedented “North Korean experiment.”