Kaixi

June 3 (Asia Today) — Wu’er Kaixi, a former student leader of China’s 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, warned South Koreans on Wednesday not to view North Korea only as a country of the same ethnic people.

“North Koreans are certainly Koreans. They speak the same language and eat the same food,” Wu’er said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, one day before the anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown. “But they have been affected by the disease of communism, and that influence has seeped into their bones and DNA.”

Wu’er, also known as Uerkesh Davlet, was listed by the club as a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen movement for its Wednesday news conference, titled “Tiananmen 37 Years Later.”

Asia Today asked Wu’er about the future of China and what it could mean for the Korean Peninsula, noting China’s influence on the Korean War, the division of the peninsula and North Korea’s nuclear issue.

Wu’er responded by directly addressing North Korea.

“I understand that Koreans dream of unification,” he said. “But that is not simply a matter of meeting lost brothers and sisters again. It is the process of rebuilding half of a country that has been affected by communism.”

Wu’er expressed concern about what he described as a nationalist approach within parts of South Korean society.

“When I talk with friends in Seoul, I often sense conservative and nationalist sentiment,” he said. “I fully understand such feelings because South Korea has faced North Korea’s military threat directly.”

“But South Koreans who enjoy liberal democracy should have a mindset of using that freedom for the freedom of North Koreans,” he said.

Wu’er also warned against accepting North Korean propaganda at face value.

“North Korea’s military threats are calculated actions,” he said. “You should not be misled by the nationalist slogans they put forward.”

He said propaganda is used to control hungry citizens.

“North Koreans are still hungry, but they are ruled by regime propaganda,” Wu’er said.

“North Korea is no longer the North Korea we think of,” he said. “If one day South Koreans have the chance to embrace North Koreans, they will realize they are no longer the brothers and sisters they remember from the past.”

“They may be closer to Russians or Chinese,” he said. “You have to understand how a communist system changes human beings and society.”

Wu’er said South Korea’s government and people should understand the nature of the Chinese Communist Party system when considering North Korea.

During the news conference, Wu’er sharply criticized the Chinese Communist Party, saying many people mistakenly view China as a state driven by nationalism or communist ideology.

“The Chinese Communist Party is simply a criminal group,” he said. “They are not pursuing the interests of the state or the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. They are only interested in maintaining their own power and wealth.”

He dismissed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s slogan of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” as propaganda meant to deceive the Chinese people.

“The Chinese Communist Party is driven more by interests than ideology,” Wu’er said. “Like a criminal organization seeking more profits, it endlessly tries to expand power and control.”

“To understand China, ask a criminologist rather than an international politics scholar,” he said. “If you approach it through the behavior of a criminal group, you can understand China’s foreign policy much more accurately.”

Wu’er said the Chinese Communist Party “is never satisfied” and urged liberal democracies to respond firmly as Beijing seeks to expand its control and influence.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260603010001047