Committee for Democratization of North Korea President Hwang Jang Yop has criticized the “candle light demonstrations,” which have been going on for over two months in the center of Seoul against imports of U.S. beef, as nothing but the “dictatorship of the masses.”

Hwang Jang Yop released a statement on the 2nd to encourage “the citizens’ alliance against illegal candle light demonstrations,” saying that “There are now two kinds of dictatorship on the Korean Peninsula. The first one is North Korea’s dictatorship that destroys even seeds of resistance by exterminating three whole generations of nonconformists, namely,; a state dictatorship. And, the other is of South Korean, the dictatorship of the masses, ruled by the leftists who previously fell under the spell of North Korean propaganda.”

He pointed out that, “From my perspective, which has witnessed both systems, North Korea’s state dictatorship is similar to that of the South Korean masses and their candlelight'. While the national principle is the Juche Ideology, the South Korean principle is ‘against mad cow disease,’ which was stimulated by anti-Americanism. While the command group in North Korea is the National Defense Commission, South Korea’s leading group is the faction of pro-North Koreans and the followers of Kim Jong Il, the so-called ‘progressive leftist group.’”

He continued, “There are also propagandist schemes in both systems. In the North, the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Chosun Central Party supports the state dictatorship, and in the South, there are KBS and MBC broadcasting stations in the South.”

Hwang stated that mature democracy cannot be completed by illegal activities or violations, but only by the process of negotiations.

He strongly criticized the current situation, saying that “What the dictatorship of the masses is carrying out in the name of the population is just an anti-Lee and anti-American movement.”

He added, targeting the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice and the leading groups in the demonstrations, that “If you are those who really know about justice and the rights of human beings, I want to ask you why you did not raise candles for the justice and human rights of the North Korean people.”