hankyoreh

North Korea accused conservatives in South Korea of stepping up "propaganda broadcasting" aimed at fueling cross-border tensions and undermining the communist regime, a state-controlled front said Sunday.

In a communique carried by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland claimed conservatives in the South were using radio broadcasts as a tool to bring down the Pyongyang regime.

It said broadcasts by North Korea Reform Radio, the Open Radio for North Korea and several Christian evangelical programs reaching North Korea were using human rights as a weapons to hurt the communist regime.

This, the reunification front said, is in direct violation of the spirit of the June 15 Declaration reached between the two leaders in 2000, and would have a detrimental effect on bilateral relations.

"Such actions are anti-unification and anti-nationalistic in nature and will lead to ideological confrontation," it said in the message picked up in Seoul.

The organization then said that these broadcasts echoed U.S.

propaganda broadcasts carried by Free Asia Radio and Voice of America.

It stressed that Pyongyang will not stand by while such subversive activities are carried out and that it plans to carefully weigh its counteractions.

The denunciation follows a similar criticism from a weekly news outlet on Saturday that accused the South of beefing up broadcasts that hurt the North.

Pyongyang, after dealing with two consecutive liberal South Korean governments for the past 10 years, is moving to adjust its strategy following Lee Myung-bak's landslide victory in December.

Lee, a CEO-turned politician, won the presidential race on the ticket of the conservative Grand National Party. The party has persistently been critical of what it calls "appeasement" policies towards the North and said it will revamp Seoul's North Korean policy from scratch

SEOUL Yonhap