A Catalan-North Korean Official ensures that “the government will be collective” for some years, until Kim Jong-un becomes the “Great Leader”
Alejandro Cao, born in Catalonia, is the Chairman of the Korean Friendship Association, part of the hermetic regime’s body promoting North Korea’s image abroad. Cao is one of the few North Korean top officials who travel abroad and talk to the press. The sudden death of Kim Jong-il found this “special representative” of North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in Catalonia, visiting relatives. He shared his views on the regime’s future leadership with CNA.
Tarragona (ACN).- Kim Jong-un will not run North Korea as an absolute ruler during his first years as the regime’s leader. Decisions will be taken collectively within the cabinet, and the regime’s ‘number two’, Kim Yong-nam, will be the actual ruler. Kim Jong-un has “qualities” to become “the Great Leader”, but he still needs to “earn the people’s trust”. This is the opinion of Alejandro Cao de Benós de Les i Pérez, a Catalan working within the government of the most closed country in the world. Cao is the Chairman of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), which is part of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The KFA is in charge of promoting the image of North Korea abroad and organising business and journalistic trips to the country.
North Korea’s Catalan ambassador
Alejandro Cao was born in Tarragona, a coastal city in southern Catalonia. He was passionate about North Korea as a teenager and aged 16 years old he travelled to the country. Since then, he has been living in North Korea for the last 21 years and has a North Korean passport. Cao has been in charge of the Korean Friendship Association for the last eight years. Since the country has no embassies, he has been travelling the world representing Kim Jong-il’s government. “I am the link between the government and the rest of the world”, he says when defining his role. In North Korea he holds the name of Chon Son-il, meaning “Korea is one”. These past few days he has been visiting his family in Catalonia, in the village of Vespella de Gaià, when he heard of the news of the sudden death of Kim Jong-il. Cao is the only North Korean top official abroad and willing to talk to the press. Cao has the status of “special representative” from the North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry, and he acts as an official spokesperson.
Kim Jong-un “does not control the army”
Cao believes that the country will wait for Kim Jong-un to become the “Great Leader”. The North Korean Government will therefore be dominated for the time being by Kim Jong-il’s ‘number two’, Kim Yong-nam. Kim Jong-un will be the country's leader, but decisions will be taken in a “collective manner”. Cao stressed that Kim Jong-un has “qualities” to become North Korea’s leader, but “he is still very young” and “has to earn the people’s trust”. Nonetheless, for Alejandro Cao, Kim Jong-un is “a model leader”, because he is a key person for “the new generations to continue with the revolution”. However “he does not control the army and he is learning from war veterans and North Korean leaders”. Cao explained to ACN that power in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea “is split between the party, the parliament and the army”. Cao insisted that the current executive leader is the Chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Yong nam, who has up until now been the regime’s ‘number two’. Since the title of ‘Supreme Leader’ is earned through years of service to the revolution, explained Cao, Kim Jong-un will not be permitted to run the country without consulting with other leaders, in particular Kim Yong-nam, who controls the parliament, and has a definitive influence over the party and government.
Years to become the “Supreme Leader”
Despite the vacant position left by the death of Kim Jong-il, Cao insisted that there will be “absolute continuity” and there will not be “any variation”. Therefore, the North Korean official spokesperson said that the regime will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal, for “dissuasion” purposes because of “the threat of the United States occupying North Korea”.
No changes in the economic model
Answering China’s hopes for a change in the North Korean economy, Cao stressed that Communism will continue in the country as it is. “China can continue dreaming. Deng Xiaoping, who introduced China’s capitalist reforms, already tried it. He already tried to convince our leaders and we firmly refused to do so”, the official spokesperson explained. However, in 2012 it has already been planned to have “more imports and exports, but always respecting the 100% Socialist internal economy”, he continued. In fact, the North Korean economy needs to import some products, such as technology, and in order to pay for it needs to use currency such as the dollar or the euro. The North Korean regime hopes to get more dollars and euro by exporting minerals, textile products and heavy industry goods.