NK Urges S. Korean Voters to Vote Against Ruling Party

North Korea has urged the South Korean people to punish the Lee Myung-bak administration through the local elections slated for Wednesday.

The Central Committee for Unification and Democracy in the Fatherland, an organization for South Korean affairs under the ruling North Korean Workers’ Party, issued a “letter to the South Korean people” Saturday apparently urging South Korean voters to punish the Lee administration through the local elections.

The (North) Korean Central News Agency quoted the letter as saying, “The local elections in South Korea are not a simple competition between the ruling and opposition parties to secure power in provincial regions, but a serious political confrontation between war and peace and between democracy and fascism.”

“The South Korean people must stand up to rally en mass to stage a sacred war to crush anti-national betrayals.”

The letter added, “In the last presidential election (in South Korea), we earnestly urged voters not to vote for a conservative party like the Grand National Party because if it assumes power, it will revive dictatorship, dismantle inter-Korean relations, and trigger a war.”

“Soon after taking power, the conservative party completely discarded the achievements of the inter-Korean joint statement of June 15, 2000, continued an anti-republic confrontation, fabricated a big-scale insane case of the sinking of the (Cheonan) vessel, and sent inter-Korean relations into the grave situation of today.”

The North issued a similar message May 19 in the name of an anti-imperialist, pro-national and democratic coalition, another Workers’ Party body, and of the North Korean committee for the implementation of the joint statement Thursday. This is the first time, however, that Pyongyang issued such a message in a letter format addressed to the South Korean people.

The North is also sending e-mail and fax messages to religious and social organizations in the South.

kyle@donga.com