Former President speaks out on North Korea

Former President Kim Dae-jung said of North Korea’s recent recalcitrant behavior:

North Korea is doing things that put itself to a disadvantage;
I don’t know what North Korea is thinking and (firing missiles) only makes hard-liners in the US and Japan clapping their hands in happiness.

On the US attitude towards the regime, he underlines:

The way the US treats the regime is not wise. The US should talk to North Korea and by doing so, the regime can change;
The US is imposing economic sanctions on the North, but when ordinary people in the North feel more reduced to poverty, they do put the blame on US sanctions, not on the regime;
Military punishment will not be successful because US military capability is not up to the level that can effectively constrain the regime. Moreover South Korea and China won’t let it successful.

As of Korea-US relations, he gently suggests:

We are the third largest US ally in terms of the number of army dispatch to Iraq but the US is grumbling about minor things. So we have to persuade the US. Korea-US relations should be based on a give-and-take.

Finally he says of his suspended visit to the regime, “When the North tells me it wants to hear what I have to say, I can go. Otherwise, I can’t unilaterally say I will come,” indicating he wouldn’t like to go unless invited.