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NK intervention attempts in S. Korean elections

Posted January. 09, 2012 03:09,   

한국어

Just as expected, North Korea has shown signs of resuming intervention in South Korean elections. Pyongyang`s propaganda organ against Seoul said in a New Year`s editorial carried on the National Salvation Front, “By achieving a higher level of unification of progressive forces, we should give a crushing defeat to the South Korean government in this year`s parliamentary and presidential elections.” An order to stop military exercises the day of the announcement of Kim Jong Il`s death on Dec. 19 last year was his successor Kim Jong Un`s first order to North Korean military. The editorial on intervention in the elections in South Korea is Kim Jong Un`s first order against the South.

Shamelessly, North Korea mentioned progressive values though it has shot to death those who flee the communist country to avoid starvation and driven its people into terror to maintain its totalitarian system. The world is mocking North Korea, which completed a third-generation power transfer. Despite this, the communist regime seeks to intervene in the elections in South Korea, where voters can freely choose their leaders. North Korea also instigated its people in a joint New Year editorial carried by its media including the Rodong Sinmun, saying, "We should make a fire of mass struggle to smash machinations by traitors and those subservient to the stronger in the South." Yet begging for the safety of the regime and depending on China are betrayal of a country and subservience to the stronger.

North Korea has long attempted to intervene in South Korean elections under the goal of “unifying the Korean Peninsula under the juche (self-reliance) ideology and establishment of a communist society.” Its intervention in the Seoul mayoral by-election in October last year is one example. Back then, Pyongyang defined the election as a battle for survival between democratic and reformist forces and conservative groups, saying, “If the leader of corruption (ruling Grand National Party candidate Na Kyung-won) becomes Seoul mayor, the working class, which account for a majority of Seoul citizens, will starve and lose their jobs as well as their homes.” North Korea must reflect on itself first, however, since it has failed to feed its people even with corn, not to mention “rice and meat soup."

North Korea will be eager to manipulate elections in South Korea to allow those with a cooperative attitude toward the communist country to take power. The North Korean regime is operating a secret task force under the united front department of the Workers` Party to intervene in South Korean elections. The North`s Internet propaganda website “Uriminjokkiri" is attempting to manipulate the elections via social networking services. Pro-North Korea forces in Japan have also begun campaigns to mobilize those supporting North Korea to the voting booths. The South Korean government must take practical measures to prevent North Korea`s intervention in elections.

Editorial Writer Bhang Hyeong-nam (hnbhang@donga.com)