The Marmot’s Hole

Former Uri Party chief and newly appointed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was given an extremely warm welcome to his post by the North Koreans in their best Pyongyang-style. In an editorial on Tuesday, the Democratic Front of South Korea (Korean: Hanminjeon, Read: Pyongyang) verbally assaulted Chung in response to Seoul’s refusal to allow certain South Korean figures to visit the North to participate in remembrance ceremonies on the 10th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s death. Expressing extreme concern over progress in North-South relations as the matter occurred as soon as Chung took up the ministerial post, they mentioned Chung’s verbal miscue concerning elderly voters during the general election, and said that his refusal to let the elderly widow of former activist Rev. Moon Ik-hwan visit the North constituted another slam on old folk — and it did so in a rather ugly tone. It then said:

On the street, word is already going round that because of Chung’s indiscreet and rash behavior, he won’t be Unification Minister for very long.

It added that in the North, they are saying that one shouldn’t associate with people like Chung, who are one way today and another way tomorrow. The editorial also expressed sweet love ™ for new Prime Minister Lee Hai-chan — who “will never escape responsibility for severely damaging North-South relations” for his role in blocking the visit, — and condemned former activist politicians in general for not being the progressive representatives of independence, democracy and unification that they were expected to be by the patriotic masses.

And to think Chung actually had to fight off Kim Geun-tae for the job. Kim’s probably smiling right now — I can’t remember the last time Pyongyang took a dump on a sitting South Korean health and welfare minister.