Dandong, China — The North Korean authorities have not been revealing their official attitude on the Lee Myung Bak administration yet, but it has been confirmed that they have charged into a critical educational project of the administration through on-the-job and People’s Unit lectures since the middle of last month.

Oh Moon Shik (pseudonym), a trading worker for a factory in North Pyongan Province, said on the 21st in Dandong, China, “In mid-February, the Party secretary of the factory officially alerted the workers of the take-off of the Lee administration, saying, ‘Grand National Party candidate Lee Myung Bak was elected during South Korea’s presidential elections, stirring up blood in slandering the Republic (North Korea).'”

Oh said, “South Korea’s key state of affairs such as the take-off of the new administration can only be relayed to the civilians by the unanimous command of the top. Since mid-February, in all regions of North Korea, civilian educational projects regarding the launching of the new administration in South Korea have been in progress.”

He explained, “Our enterprise office at least provides several thousand won in salary, so the organizational set-up is solid compared to the other factories. The educational project undertaken by our party organization occurs just about the same time as in Pyongyang.”

Oh relayed, “The lectures explain that the Lee Myung Bak administration has stepped up in South Korea, but that one never knows when the administration will change. Before Lee’s election, there was disorderly mudslinging competition with Park Geun Hye within the same party and so many people vied for the Presidency, that it will not last long.”

The reporter retorted to Oh, “South Korea selects the President through elections, so is the North aware of the fact that it is difficult to drive out presidents via power struggles?” He replied, “I even know that much. However, the party organization has been teaching, ‘In the South, one can do anything with money, even usher in a new president.’ Average workers simply believe such words.”

The reason for the North Korean authorities advertising the instability of the South Korean state of affairs seems to be to show its intention of preventing the citizens from having a fantasy of the new South Korean administration.

He also said, “The state has said that Lee Myung Bak is ahead in maligning us and that that he is worse than Roh Tae Woo. During Roh’s presidency, we received a lot of support, but can the citizens really have a good impression of South Korea’s new administration with an impending decrease in aid?”

The North Korean authorities have fiercely criticized the “Nordpolitik” of the Roh administration and declared former President Roh as a “representative puppet of the U.S. empire.”

An inside North Korean source of the “Daily NK” relayed on the 21st, “Since the latter half of February, the education has begun. They say that ‘Lee Myung Bak has won the Presidency and will play the role of America’s perpetrator'”

The source said, “The North Korean authorities are propagandizeing that the Lee administration will bring in American nuclear weapons on a large-scale. Such propaganda reflects the intent to etch the negative side of the Lee administration in order to make the citizens nervous.”

The North Korean authorities, rather than directly attacking the Lee administration, has concentrated its efforts in a case-by-case response, such as the U.S.-South Korean military exercises and criticism of North Korea’s human rights. The DPRK’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland designated the current administration as conservative through the statement of a spokesperson, criticizing, “The descendants of a dictatorial regime.”

The North Korean authorities’ so-called “civilian education” merely amounts to a form of propagandistic activity over civilians, but it is being observed whether or not internal criticism of the Lee administration will subsequently surface in rice aid and other potential negotiations with the South.