The ousted president of South Korea reportedly signed off on plans to “remove” North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un from leadership by any means necessary, be it exile or assassination.
Following the failure of the bilateral meeting between the North and the South, ousted South Korean president Park Geun-hye approved a plan that was intended to instigate a “leadership change” in North Korea.
An inside source with direct knowledge of the plan clued the Asahi Shimbun in on the story:
The plotters apparently considered staging an “accident” on the road or over water to eliminate Kim, but tight security prevented any mission from being carried out, the source said.
Park was further infuriated by North Korea’s nuclear tests in January and September 2016, and she began to publicly criticize Kim in her speeches.
But she also emphasized that she did not view the North Korean populace as the enemy.
In a speech given in August 2016, she called out directly to North Korean government officials and the general population for a unification of the two Koreas. Two months later, she urged North Korean citizens to defect from their nation.
Another source said Park’s moves were an attempt to spur a “palace revolution” among those in high-ranking positions close to Kim.
Sources said plans to bring down Kim were also pushed forward by NIS reports that described an unstable North Korean society suffering from power and water shortages as well as the rule of a paranoid leader fearful of an attack on himself.
Those reports apparently led to the belief that a leadership change was possible in North Korea.
That may have led the NIS to funnel such intelligence reports to the president, while ignoring analyses of other officials that painted a picture of a stable North Korean economy helped through the partial introduction of capitalist economic measures as well as a unified leadership structure under Kim that would make a regime change very difficult.
A leadership change did take place, but it occurred in South Korea, when Park was impeached in a corruption scandal.
Moon Jae-in, who became South Korean president in May, campaigned on a pledge to promote dialogue with North Korea. He has not likely adopted the plan to oust Kim.
