Before Gwangmyeongseongjeol, South Korea-Cuba Diplomatic Relations Established... Tae Young-ho: "Kim Jong-un Must Have Been Surprised"

Rep. Tae: "It's Like Being Betrayed by Cuba"

Ahead of the birthday of the late Kim Jong-il, former Chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, known as the so-called 'Gwangmyeongseongjeol,' South Korea and Cuba made a 'surprise diplomatic normalization,' with Tae Young-ho, a member of the People Power Party, calling it a "perfectly timed" move.

At a floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 16th, Rep. Tae said, "Since coming to power, Kim Jong-un has specially invested effort in relations with Cuba by inviting the Cuban president to Pyongyang," adding, "However, on February 16, the very day of Kim Jong-il’s birthday, which is celebrated as North Korea’s biggest national festival of the year, just before the so-called Gwangmyeongseongjeol, Cuba has effectively betrayed North Korea, and the scene is vivid enough that it needs no further explanation."

North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un visited the Ministry of Defense on the 8th to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army (Army Foundation Day) together with his daughter Ju-ae, according to Korean Central TV on the 9th. Photo by Yonhap News Agency, Korean Central TV screen

Earlier, on the 14th, South Korea announced a sudden establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba, North Korea’s so-called 'brother country.' North Korea appeared taken aback by the abrupt normalization between the two countries and responded by stating with Japan that "we can open a new future together," signaling a countermeasure.

According to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 15th, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement, "If Japan sheds its bad habit of unjustly raising issues about our right to self-defense and does not treat the already resolved abduction issue as an obstacle to the prospects of bilateral relations, there will be no reason for the two countries not to grow closer, and the day may come when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Pyongyang."

Rep. Tae said, "Kim Yo-jong proposed inviting Japanese Prime Minister Kishida to Pyongyang as a countermeasure to the South Korea-Cuba diplomatic normalization, but it is clearly insufficient to overshadow the impact of the South Korea-Cuba normalization news," adding, "We will have to see how Kim Jong-un spends Kim Jong-il’s birthday today, but probably the foreign luxury liquor and Russian caviar purchased with foreign currency earned from selling weapons to Russia will not go down the throat easily because of the news of South Korea and Cuba’s diplomatic normalization."

He also emphasized, "The establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Cuba achieved by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration will be recorded in history as a historic event comparable to the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China and between South Korea and the Soviet Union during the Roh Tae-woo administration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.