hankyoreh

June 27.

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

North Korea recently delivered harsh criticism of President Park Geun-hye that referred to her without her official title, which is considered a sign of overt disrespect in Korean culture.

This was the second such denunciation, the first coming in a May 25 statement by a National Defense Commission politburo spokesperson, who called her a “puppet president.” At the same time, it left open the continued possibility for inter-Korean dialogue, stating that it was “watching Park Geun-hye closely with our last bit of patience.”

The more recent remarks omitting Park’s title were given by a spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, North Korea’s organization for South Korean affairs. In a July 1 interview with a Korean Central News Agency reporter, the spokesperson said, “Park Geun-hye of South Choson [Korea] went to China this time and made several provocative misstatements that severely insulted [North Korea’s] dignity and regime.”

The spokesperson also used made several negative comments about Park, calling her “brazen” and criticizing her “scandalous behavior” and “nefarious designs.”

Apart from the May 25 statement, North Korea has been generally reserved in its denunciations of Park, referring to her by names such as “the lady in the Blue House.”

This time, the spokesperson said Park had “kept going on about ‘change’ in reference to [North Korea], talking about ‘new inter-Korean relations’ and ‘a new Korean Peninsula.’

"The South Choson administration are the ones who need to change," the spokesperson continued.

The spokesperson also blasted Park’s idea of a ‘trust-building process’ for the Korean Peninsula, saying, "They have shown the whole world that it is a dangerous, hostile policy that is not at all different from the ‘Vision 3000’ of the Lee Myung-bak thugs."

"She said that she wants to use foreign powers to disarm us as to change our regime through international coordination against the republic," the spokesperson added. "It is the vainest of pipe dreams."

"We are watching Park Geun-hye closely with our last bit of patience."

Kim Hyung-seok, a spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, said at a briefing that North Korea had "criticized President Park Geun-hye without using her title for the second time, after last May."

"It is fundamentally dismaying to see them using such highly inappropriate expressions and language about a head of government," Kim added.

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