In 1991 at the dawn of the post-Cold War era, North Korea signed the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement. Under it, Pyongyang agreed to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the other Korea. However, they have continued to intervene in South Korean presidential and parliamentary elections all the same. Pyongyang works to expand its influence through pro-North forces based in the South, and ahead of major elections tends to come out in support of certain factions in varied strategic ways.
Meanwhile, the results of a recent language use survey of elementary, middle, high school students by the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations and EBS were a shock. Most students are seemingly akin to swearing machines. According to the tape recorders carried around by four middle and high school students, each student swore an average of 190 times over four hours, equaling 49 times per hour, or once every 75 seconds.
The abuse does not only come from South Korean students, however. North Korea also employs sub-middle and high school-level swearing against South Korea. And the state media broadcasts all of it. Chosun Workers’ Party publication Rodong Shinmun, Chosun Central TV and various radio broadcasters, in addition to the external web presence Uriminzokirri, continuously slander the South Korean government, the president and Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun Hye.
The criticisms seem close to madness. According to National Assembly data, the North Korean state media referred directly to South Korea’s presidential election on 767 separate occasions between the April 11th South Korean parliamentary election and September, an average of 4.6 times per day. This is three times the number prior to the 17th presidential election in 2007 (1.5 times per day).
Some of the rhetoric has been extraordinarily inflammatory. Of candidate Park Geun Hye, North Korea says that war will follow if she is elected, while there have also been blunt reminders of the 2010 Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island incidents.
“In the past, North Korean provocations were favorable to conservative, right –wing forces, but the June 2nd regional election of 2010 came down in favor of progressive and left-wing forces,” one government official explained. “North Korea’s calculation comes down to this: young centrists will support left wing and pro-North Korea groups so as to avoid war at all costs, to a greater degree than the dangers of war will mobilize the conservative base.”
However, South Korea is not that kind of place any more. A candidate is not elected or defeated by North Korean slander and propaganda. Rather, if North Korea overtly supports a certain candidate, they are often taken to be pro-North Korean and lose votes as a result.
During the April 11th elections of 2012, derogatory remarks made by Democratic United Party candidate Kim Yong Min did him no favors whatsoever. If North Korea keeps going beyond the pail in this way, then it will suffer a similar fate.
