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Senator John Kerry
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Pyongyang is giving deferential treatment to John Kerry, the presumptive U.S. presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, out of expectation that he would be more moderate on North Korean issues and could resume the stalled bilateral dialogue between the North and the United States, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
According to the prestigious British newspaper, North Korean state-run media organizations reported in detail recent speeches by the Massachusetts senator, who is critical of President George W. Bush. The apparent enthusiasm for Kerry, the report said, may reflect North Korean hopes that Kerry's victory might lead to a softening in U.S. policy toward the North's nuclear program as well as a "better the devil you don’t know" mentality among North Korean apparatchiks.
"However, the North Korean media is a constituency Mr. Kerry could do without and a signal of support from North Korea will delight Republicans eager to pain Mr. Kerry as soft on national security," the report said. Gordon Flake, an American expert in North Korean affairs, also cautioned North Korea against expecting too much from Kerry. "It would be harder for a Democratic president to do a deal because there would be a lot of pressure on him not to be a soft touch," he was quoted as saying.
In the mean time, France's Le Monde reported Tuesday in an article titled "North Korea casts a vote for John Kerry" that just like Washington relies on time for regime change in North Korea, Pyongyang might similarly be hoping for a change in the White House in November.
(Lee Chul-min, chulmin@chosun.com )
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