elect North Korea Silent on Lee Election
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
North Korea has kept silent on the Wednesday victory of conservative President-elect Lee Myung-bak though it had responded to the result of presidential elections briefly through its state-run media.
Experts regard the silence as a wait-and-see strategy because the advent of Lee, who stresses more reciprocity than engagement with North Korea, basically ushers in a challenging era, ending the 10-year ``sunshine policy.''
``North Korea is probably watching the situation with concern over the conservative President-elect,'' said Paik Hak-soon, director of the North Korean studies program at Sejong Institute in Seoul.
Paik said North Korea is worried about how Lee and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush, who is also conservative, will cooperate on North Korean issues considering their recent phone talks and Lee's position on North Korea.
Lee repeatedly said he will reconsider agreements reached at the inter-Korean summit in October and relations between the two Koreas.
He meant that the South is not so much interested in developing inter-Korean relations unless the North gives up its nuclear weapons and reforms its system.
``I'll say what I have to say regarding North Korea,'' Lee said. ``For example, we need to pay attention to poor human rights in North Korea.''
In 2002, the North Korean media reported two days after the presidential election that Roh Moo-hyun of the New Millennium Democratic Party defeated those who opposed the June 15 Joint Declaration.
With the report, Pyongyang indirectly showed its support for Roh who would inherit his predecessor Kim Dae-jung's engagement policy and its opposition against the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) and its candidate Lee Hoi-chang.
In 1997, North Korea reported three days after the election that an opposition leader won the presidency but didn't provide any comment on winner Kim Dae-jung, even his name.
When Kim Young-sam was elected president in 1992, North Korea claimed that the United States maneuvered the election result, saying that Kim's presidency would be just an extension of his predecessor Roh Tae-woo's rule.
Meanwhile, Paik expected North Korea to try to maintain good relations with the Lee administration too, because the North's leadership also doesn't want to repeat confrontation as seen at the October summit.
``North Korea will do its best to develop its survival and prosperity in return for abandoning nuclear weapons,'' Paik continued. ``So it will have to maintain good relations with President-elect Lee.''
Kwon Ho-ung, a senior Cabinet minister of North Korea, echoed the view by saying Sunday that Lee's win will not change the basic frame of inter-Korean cooperation despite his conservatism.
``The mood of inter-Korean cooperation will remain intact,'' Kwon was quoted as saying by a source at the opening of the inter-Korean economic cooperation office in Gaeseong.
Kwon's remark, which is the first response as senior North Korean official to Lee's victory, suggested that Pyongyang hopes to maintain inter-Korean cooperation though it doesn't like the President-elect's conservatism.
Earlier this year, North Korea expressed its intention to intervene in the presidential election, and criticized the GNP for its hawkish North Korea policy. But the criticism on the party has dwindled as election day neared.