N Korea reports Park's win a day late
2012-12-21 10:48
Seoul - North Korea has reported Park Geun-Hye's victory in
the South's presidential election - a day late, with no mention of her name,
and no reference to the historic nature of her win.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which had
previously devoted considerable time and space to denouncing Park and her
ruling conservative party, recorded her victory in a one-line report late on Thursday.
"The candidate from the New Frontier Party was elected
with a slim margin in the presidential election in the South," said the
report, sourced to foreign and South Korean news media.
There was no separate commentary or editorial.
The North Korean reaction was actually speedier than for
previous presidential elections, when it has sometimes taken two or three days
to register the result.
And current President Lee Myung-Bak's victory in December
2007 was not reported at all.
Yonhap news agency quoted one analyst who went so far as to
suggest the one-day time lapse this time around was a sign that Pyongyang might
seek to mend ties with the new Park administration.
Park, the daughter of former military ruler Park Chung-Hee,
will become South Korea's first woman president, after winning Wednesday's poll
against her liberal rival Moon Jae-In.
North Korea had made its electoral preference very clear
early on in the election campaign, attacking Park, her party and her father's
divisive legacy.
Even before Park won the party presidential nomination in
August, KCNA had slammed her candidacy, warning that "a dictator's
bloodline cannot change away from its viciousness".
During her campaign, Park had distanced herself from
outgoing president Lee's hardline policy towards Pyongyang and spoken of the
need for greater engagement with the North.
But in her first post-victory policy statement on Thursday,
Park made it clear she still viewed Pyongyang as a serious threat and would put
the South's national security before any trust-building programme.
