North insults new president and his policies

SEOUL — First it was missiles, then threats, now insults.

Days after testing missiles in the Yellow Sea and warning that it would lay waste to South Korea, North Korea yesterday launched a barrage of invective against Seoul’s new conservative president, Lee Myung-bak.

The Rodong Shinmun, Pyongyang’s leading newspaper, in its first direct comments about Mr. Lee, called him “an absent-minded traitor” and a “U.S. sycophant,” whose policies would have “irrevocable catastrophic consequences.”

The insult came two days after North Korea threatened to turn South Korean into “ashes” — a response to last week’s statement by South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Kim Tae-young, that the South would consider a pre-emptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities, if it felt threatened. Last week, North Korea fired missiles off its west coast and expelled southern officials from a joint North-South business park.

South Korea’s best-selling daily newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, reported that since Mr. Lee’s Feb. 25 inauguration, North Korean jets have buzzed Southern airspace over the demilitarized zone and the Yellow Sea maritime border 10 times, forcing South Korean jets to scramble. The report added that a North Korean mechanized corps has also moved southward.

South Korean Defense Ministry staffers would not comment on the Chosun report, and there has been little official reaction from Seoul to the latest saber rattling.

During his election campaign, Mr. Lee vowed to focus his energies most closely on the domestic economy, with a key foreign policy aim being improved relations with Washington.

“I think we all expected Kim Jong-il to take the measure of the new president and see if Lee Myung-bak is as easy to intimidate as his predecessor,” said Brian Myers, a North Korea expert at Busan’s Dongseo University. “The timing is significant and not particularly surprising.”

Mr. Lee’s two predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, prioritized improved relations with the North and oversaw the implementation of previously unprecedented North-South economic cooperation projects, notably at the Mount Kumgang tourism zone and the Kaesong joint industrial park.

They also both met North Korea leader Kim Jong-il; no South Korean president had previously met his North Korean counterpart. However, none of these efforts staved off the ongoing nuclear crisis.

Experts say the North’s recent actions toward Seoul reflect frustration about the new administration’s policies, and are an attempt to sway southern opinion.

“If Lee continues his ’benign neglect,’ North Korea will escalate tensions, but they know South Korea’s government is different from last year’s,” said Choi Jin-wook of the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“They do not want conflict, they want aid, so they are trying to encourage South Korean public opinion to act against the Lee … government.”

National Assembly elections are scheduled in South Korea on April 9. On April 18, Mr. Lee meets President Bush in Washington.

The top U.S. nuclear negotiator, Christopher Hill, arrived in Seoul yesterday. He said the North’s recent actions would make no difference in attempts to restart stalled six-party talks.