[imText1]A couple of days have passed since the presidential candidate Lee Myung Bak won the South’s presidential election. The North Korean media has not yet announced the result to their audience. In fact, the North usually reports on the result of the South’s presidential election two to three days after the election.
No one would hold a different view that the North is concerned with the South’s 17th presidential election more than any other countries. In its 2007 New Year speech, the North Korean regime bluntly called for the establishment of a “United Front against the conservatives” in the South in the hope to prevent the conservative Grand National Party from holding the office. This illustrates well how highly the North is interested in the South’s presidential election.
As soon as the primary of the Korean Grand National Party for the presidential election kicked off, the North Korean media started attacking then candidate Lee Myong Bak and Park Geun Hae. They even went so far as to call Park Geun Hae as “Whore of Yusin [referring to the 1972 Yusin Constitution of the late president Park Jung Hee, which helped Park establish a dictatorship. Park Guen Hae is Park Jung Hee’s only daughter.]” When Lee won the primary, the North called him a “pro-American traitor and sycophant.”
When Lee Hoi Chang announced his third presidential bid, the North started attacking him because Lee Hoi Chang ran on a tough North Korean policy saying “No Denuclearization No Support.” Some experts say that the North changed its target and started to restrain its attack on Lee Myung Back because it anticipated that Lee Myung Bak would likely win the election.
On December 15th, Rodong Shinmun (North Korean state newspaper) ran an article titled, “The traitor is doomed to perdition” in which the newspaper denounced the independent candidate Lee Hoi Chang as a “pro-American and pro-Japanese puppet, brutal warmonger, king of corruption, and power-crazy lunatic.”
Lee Myung Bak won the presidential election, but the North has not made any response to the election result. Lee Hoi Chang against whom the North launched such intensive attack toward the end of the election period came in third. Abusive words against Lee Hoi Chang disappeared from the North Korean media after the election.
“The North is watching the turn of events,” said a defector who used to engage himself in the North’s intelligence operations against the South. Another defector said, “The North has enjoyed the past ten years of the South’s appeasement policy pursued by the liberals. However, as the conservatives have just won the election and are about to take over the Blue House, the North finds itself dumbfounded because it is not yet prepared for the transfer of political power.
A government affiliate said in an interview with Yonhap News, “The North is going to observe the turn of events while implementing the agreements made at the Inter-Korean Summit and prime ministerial talks.” The affiliate added, “The North will pay special attention to what kinds of positions the next president will take on the North Korean affairs.”
The North Korean authorities do not immediately announce the result of the South’s presidential election. Instead, they indirectly report the result in a newspaper article or public lecture, which normally criticize the president-elect. Many expect that the North would release an article which denounces President-elect Lee Myung Bak as usual.
However, the North might refrain itself from explicitly denouncing the new government considering the importance of the South’s economic support for the North. Instead, the North might just offer a mild critique of the president-elect using clichés for it does not want to ruin the South-North relations.
Yoo Ho Yul, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University said, “The North is now examining President-elect Lee’s North Korean policy and will pay attention to the direction of the overall North Korean policy of the next government for some time.” The professor added, “The North wants to implement the inter-Korean summit agreements, so it will actively respond to a feasibility study on the inter-Korean economic cooperation, which is to be conducted by the next South government.”
