Rodong paper comes out against Hong

North Korea said Tuesday the conservative bloc in South Korea should not be allowed to take power again, as the South held its presidential election.

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s main newspaper, said in a commentary that the removal of the conservative group will be a shortcut to new politics and life for South Korea. South Koreans on Tuesday went to the polls to pick a successor to former President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted in March over corruption charges.

Park, a conservative politician, is now jailed after the top court upheld her parliamentary impeachment following a corruption scandal involving her and her close friend.

Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party was in the lead over Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-left People’s Party, according to the latest opinion polls.

“South Koreans should judge the puppet group of conservatives, accomplices with Park, at this election, as they punished Park,” the North’s newspaper said.

Ahead of the South Korean election, North Korea’s state media and propaganda websites called for preventing the conservative bloc from taking office and raised the need to improve long-strained inter-Korean ties. South Korea’s unification ministry earlier said that North Korea seeks to mislead South Koreans’ sentiments and drive a wedge among them by releasing politically charged messages.

Yonhap