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>On April 1, North Korea described President Lee Myung-bak as a “rebel, an absent-minded traitor, a conservative power broker,” directly referring to him by name for the first time. Since Lee took office after the December presidential election, Pyongyang has used expressions such as “conservative ruling power” and “descendants of the dictatorship” to refer to the government, but has not used Lee’s name. The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers’ Party, criticized Lee’s North Korea policy as an “anti-unification declaration.” The North’s rejection of the Lee administration’s policy on North Korea is likely to prolong the strain in inter-Korean relations for a considerable period of time.

An article in the newspaper titled, “What the South Korean authorities will get from the anti-North confrontation is only destruction” said, “All Lee Myung-bak has done was to remove garbage from the Cheonggyecheon in Seoul while merely doing business throughout his life.” Since the June 15, 2000, declaration, Pyongyang has stopped criticizing South Korean heads of state.

The article went on to say, “Lee Myung-bak’s regime should take full responsibility for the irreversible, catastrophic consequences caused by its sycophantic, anti-North Korea strategies. North-South relations will come to a standstill and peace and safety on the Korean Peninsula will be destroyed,” characterizing Lee’s flagship North Korea policy, known as “Vision 3000,” as nonsensical, reactionary and something that goes against unification, saying that it will be catastrophic for inter-Korean relations. Lee, in one of his major campaign pledges, said that if the North gave up its nuclear ambitions, he would increase North Korea’s per capita gross national income to US$3,000 in ten years.

The newspaper criticized Lee’s policy of “opening” the North to the outside world for exchange and development and his pragmatic style of leadership as instilling confrontation against Pyongyang and degrading inter-Korean relations to a plaything of his pragmatic diplomacy.

In addition, it said that Lee’s emphasis on the issue of North Korea’s human rights is a willful political provocation designed to inspire hostility and distrust among people of the same race and to drive relations between the two Koreas into a confrontation.

In response, an official of the presidential office known as Cheong Wa Dae, or the Blue House, expressed regret that the North had referred to a head of state by name. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said, “First of all, we need to understand the North’s real intentions. We must precisely analyze what is behind such remarks.’’

The comments in the article come amid a deterioration in relations between North and South Korea and deadlock in a six-party talks on the denuclearization of North Korea. On March 28, North Korea test-fired several missiles into the West Sea and has been stepping up its verbal attacks on the South, though this is the first time Lee has been referred to by name. The six-party talks have stalled in recent months following a dispute between North Korea and the United States over the North’s promised declaration of its nuclear programs.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]