WASHINGTON —North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il’s death is raising tough questions not only of policy but of protocol, with major world powers divided on whether and how to offer condolences.
The United States and other Western nations have studiously avoided the word “condolences” and instead addressed statements to “the North Korean people” after the demise of a man blamed for thousands if not millions of deaths.
U.S. allies South Korea and Japan have tense relations with the North and are directly in the crosshairs of the nuclear-armed state.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Wednesday that the government would not be offering condolences to North Korea since the abduction issue remains unresolved.
South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North, said it would allow private groups to offer condolences in the latest effort to try to encourage stability despite deep worries over young successor Kim Jong-Un.
China, North Korea’s main ally, quickly showed its grief and President Hu Jintao paid respects at Pyongyang’s embassy in Beijing. Other nations that said they were sending formal condolence messages included Russia, Iran and India.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a statement issued after a day of fine-tuning, urged North Korea’s new leadership to embrace “the path of peace” but kept the focus on the country’s people rather than its leadership.
“We are deeply concerned with the well-being of the North Korean people and our thoughts and prayers are with them during these difficult times,” Clinton wrote.
Explaining the statement, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that it was “intended to be a signal of our expectations and hopes for the new regime.”
“With regard to ‘the c word,’ I think we didn’t considerate it appropriate in this case,” Nuland said.
There is historical precedent. When Kim Il-Sung—Kim Jong-Il’s father and the nation’s founder—died in 1994, then President Bill Clinton offered “sincere condolences to the people of North Korea on behalf of the people of the United States.”
Clinton, who was speaking to reporters on a visit to Italy, also voiced “deep appreciation” to Kim Il-Sung for supporting talks with the United States, but the American leader came under attack from the rival Republican Party.
Senator Bob Dole, who would unsuccessfully challenge Clinton for the White House two years later, accused the White House incumbent of forgetting the more than 35,000 Americans killed in the Korean War.
Democratic lawmakers at the time hit back by noting that Republican presidents sent condolences over the deaths of communist strongmen Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.
Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. negotiator with North Korea who now heads the Korea Economic Institute, said that Hillary Clinton’s statement was “very well crafted” as it was open to interpretation, with North Korean leaders able to see it as a condolence message if they so choose.
But Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was a risk that North Korea’s leadership would compare the 2011 and 1994 statements.
“The circumstances are completely different. I think it’s justified” not to offer condolences over Kim Jong-Il, Snyder said.
“But at the same time, I think it’s possible that the North Koreans could actually see what they’ve gotten so far as a step short of where they were previously,” he added.
Formal statements are of high importance for the leadership of North Korea, which has developed an elaborate personality cult around the Kim dynasty.
But foreign governments have been spared an additional dilemma as North Korea has indicated that international leaders will not take part in Kim’s December 28 funeral.
Peter Beck, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Pyongyang’s preemptive non-invitation showed that the regime will likely be focused on itself and the country instead of scrutinizing messages from overseas.
“They really don’t care about the world right now. They care a lot more about their internal situation,” Beck said.
© 2011 AFP
