President Lee Myung Bak branded domestic South Korean followers of North Korea a bigger problem than North Korea itself during a speech broadcast yesterday on domestic radio and You Tube.
“North Korea’s insistences are a problem, but the pro-North Korea faction inside this country that repeats their insistences verbatim are a bigger problem,” he asserted. The words mark President Lee’s first direct attack on domestic North Korea sympathizers, since he has mostly avoided commenting on recent events surrounding the United Progressive Party, which is accused of including a large number of pro-North Korea individuals.
“The international community is calling for North Korea to change; similarly, pro-North Korea believers inside the Republic of Korea, which stands among the ranks of the developed nations, must also change,” he emphasized.
Going on to mention the South Korean government ministers and officials who died in North Korea’s 1983 terrorist attack in Yangon, Myanmar, President Lee, who recently commemorated the event in the former Myanmar capital, added, “When I think of at whose hands they lost their lives, I really cannot stand the pent-up anger.”
“Of course the Myanmar government but also the UN officially declared this incident to have been the work of North Korea, but North Korea claimed it was our fabrication,” he went on. “The 2010 Cheonan sinking was the same; despite clear scientific evidence, North Korea made exactly the same fabrication claim.”
Analyzing the reasons behind the speech in conversation with Daily NK, Seoul National University professor Park Hyo Jong explained, “He said what he had been avoiding saying while he watched the United Progressive Party issue.”
