N. Korea blames Lee for former president's death

SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's party newspaper on Friday blamed South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak for the recent death of his predecessor, Roh
Moo-hyun, and vowed to bolster the country's nuclear deterrence against Lee's
"confrontational" policy.
The criticism by the Rodong Sinmun, published by the Workers' Party, is the first
political opinion from North Korea on Roh's death. Two days after he took his own
life on May 23 amid an intensifying bribery probe. North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il expressed "profound condolences" through state media.
Citing Lee's bi-weekly radio speech on Monday, the North's main paper claimed Lee
was using North Korea's nuclear test to avert public criticism at home.
Lee "criticized us for doing something while they were in a mourning period," the
paper said, referring to the North's May 25 nuclear test.
"Speaking of the mourning period, they caused it," the paper said. "If the group
of traitors did not drive the former president to death through psychological
pressure, would there be this problem in the first place?"
Roh and his relatives faced accusations of receiving more than US$6 million from
a businessman while he was in office. Prosecutors summoned him, his wife and
children separately in April and were considering whether to detain the former
president for further investigations. His sudden death sparked a public outcry
over the way prosecutors and the Lee government handled the case.
Instead of criticizing the North's nuclear test, Lee should have confessed his
"crimes" and apologized to the South Korean people, the paper said.
During his term from 2003 to 2008, Roh propelled inter-Korean relations to
reconciliation through unconditional economic aid and social exchanges. His
policy invited criticism that South Korean aid ended up financing the North's
nuclear drive. Lee adopted a tougher stance, ending the free flow of aid.
The paper also said the country will bolster its nuclear deterrence to deal with
Lee's confrontational policy and threats of invasion by the U.S.
"The reason that peace has been maintained on the Korean Peninsula, the most
unstable hot spot in the world, is because we have been bolstering our nuclear
deterrence in self-defense to cope with the increasingly malicious invasion
scheme of the U.S.," the paper said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)