Seoul (AsiaNews) – For the first time since the election of South Korea’s new president, North Korea officially acknowledged the new leader, Conservative Lee Myung-bak, in an article, only to lambaste him. In a long editorial piece published yesterday in Rodong Sinmun, the Stalinist regime’s official newspaper, Mr Lee was called a “political charlatan”, an “absent minded traitor” and a “US sycophant”.
“The Lee Myung-bak regime will be held totally responsible for ushering in a catastrophic incident by freezing North-South relations,” the article said.
Beyond the terms used the rush of insults is part of the psychological war that Seoul and Pyongyang have been waging since Mr Lee’s election on 19 December.
In fact after his election but before he was sworn into office, the president-elect openly expressed his willingness to criticise North Korea for its “disgusting” attitude towards human rights.
Since the arrival of the new South Korean administration humanitarian aid to the North has also been cut, and the new government has reiterated its support for a United Nations resolution criticising the Stalinist regime led by Kim Jong-il.
Significantly, for the first time since the end of the Civil War, South Korea’s armed forces are envisaging a possible preventive attack in case of a nuclear threat from its neighbour.
