North Korea’s Interest in the South’s Presidential Election

The first round of working group talks for energy and economic cooperation under the six-party talks was held on March 15 at the Korean embassy building in China. At the meeting, a North Korean delegate brought up the upcoming presidential election of South Korea, which is less than 10 months away, by asking his South Korean counterpart, “Whom do you think will be elected?”

The meeting was held with the participation of the South Korean delegation of some 10 people, the seven-or-eight-member North Korean delegation, and delegations from the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia.

They gathered to discuss the time and specific delivery methods of the 50,000-ton heavy fuel assistance that the five countries of the six-party talks agreed to provide to the North in the February agreement in return for Pyongyang’s fulfillment of the initial steps toward the dismantlement of its nuclear weapons. But North Koreans were more interested in the politics of the South than energy assistance.

The North delegates reportedly questioned specifically as if they are collecting information to analyze the South’s presidential election, asking: “Who do you think will become the presidential candidate between former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak and former Grand National Party Chair Park Geun-hye? How likely is Lee to be elected if he becomes the candidate?” or “Will Mr. Son Hak-kyu leave the GNP?”

They were curious about every detail and asked questions that even South Korean delegates found hard to answer. A South Korean delegate said, “I was surprised that a North Korean delegate told me that he saw me a lot on TV, rattling on about what I did in my career.”

A diplomatic source says that such interest in the South’s domestic politics is not just curiosity.

It is more research to determine what strategy would be helpful for them to induce support from Seoul, when nobody knows which party will win the upcoming presidential election.

The South Korean embassy to China hosted the dinner after a long meeting from three to seven o’clock ended that day. A North Korean delegate secretly asked his South Korean counterpart at the dinner table, “Will this (assistance to the North, which includes heavy oil) continue if the GNP takes office?”

After all, the ultimate interest of the North was economic assistance. Several delegations from the South said that the North was particularly interested in North Korea policies of the next administration, rather than this administration, which will end its term in less than a year, and in the fate of the assistance to the North under a new administration.

Meanwhile, the Rodong Shinmun, the mouthpiece of the North’s ruling party, attacked Lee and Park on March 17 in an article, titled, “The Ugly Scene of Foreign-dependence Patients.”

The newspaper dubbed Lee’s visit to the U.S. last March “shameful pro-American behavior.” It said, “Some South Koreans still show shameful behavior in pursuit of power and wealth, in which it is filial and obedient to foreign powers. They bring shame to Koreans,” adding, “The former Seoul Mayor visited here and there in the U.S., saying things like ‘South Korea escaped poverty thanks to the U.S.’”

The newspaper also criticized Park’s visit to the U.S. in February, “She toured the U.S. for as many as nine days, adulating her bosses.”

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