U.S. electoral system is ‘rigged’ with corruption, N.Korea says
Rodong Sinmun editorial heavily critical of Democrats, while almost silent on Republicans
The U.S. Presidential election system is rigged with corruption, North Korean state media said a day after the first U.S. Presidential debate held on Tuesday, Korea time.
While the article refrained from directly mentioning Presidential hopefuls Donald J. Trump or Hilary Clinton, it heavily criticized the Democratic Party while remaining almost silent on the Republicans.
“I truly feel sorry for the U.S. citizens who have to entrust the country to these people, who are blinded by the gold,” the editorial published in the Wednesday edition of Rodong Sinmun said.
“…the U.S.’ election campaign is the fanfare of dogfights among money grabbers, the stage of the law of the jungle tainted with fraud and deception.”
Titled “a dirty fight among madmen blinded by the gold,” the North Korean article started by slamming the current U.S. Presidental election system for its alleged focus on campaign spending, and not about the candidate’s political insight or the party’s platform.
The North even made reference to WikiLeaks’s July leak of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails.
“About 19,000 leaked emails have clearly exposed on how the Democratic Party is maneuvering behind the scenes to rip off the election campaign funds from the leading contributors,” it read.
Rodong Sinmun, the biggest North Korean publication for domestic readers, provided numerical figures to give readers a more clear idea on the size of the so-called “corruption.”
Describing a Democratic Party event for major donors, and the top-tier package that the party offers, Rodong slammed these are the “clear results of behind-the-scenes dealings to prepare for the election funds.”
While the 500-word editorial bashed the Democratic Party, it did not attack the current Republican Party and made only one reference to George W. Bush’s administration to criticize the party.
“It is a disclosed fact that in 2004, the U.S. Capitol under the control of the Republican Party let the Assault Weapons Ban to expire on behalf of the arms dealers, who were slipping enormous amount of money,” Rodong said.
A longtime North Korea watcher told NK News that the editorial is “a classic Marxist-Leninist critique of electoral systems in capitalist countries.”
“Large monopolistic conglomerates pour money behind the candidates so they can be selected to represent the interests of the capitalist class and not the common people,” Dr. Daniel Pinkston, a professor at Troy University said.
So far, the North Korean government has not officially stated on whether the regime favors one candidate over another, although it has hinted at an admiration for Trump.
On May 18, the U.S. Presidential hopeful Donald Trump said he “would speak to Kim Jong Un” to “talk some sense” to the North Korean leader, in contrast to the current Obama administration’s “strategic patience” policy towards the Pyongyang government.
About two weeks after Trump’s remark on Kim Jong Un, the North published an editorial on a state-run outlet calling him a “wise politician” and “far-sighted presidential candidate.”
Pinkston argued that Pyongyang believes Trump’s views on East Asia would be more aligned with its strategic interests.
“His views on U.S. alliances probably raise some hopes in Pyongyang that he would terminate U.S. alliances in East Asia and withdraw from the region, essentially retreating into neo-isolationism,” Pinkston said.
But another expert based in Seoul argued that the editorial – slamming the overall U.S. political system without clearly favoring one candidate – is an indicator that Pyongyang’s American policy will remain the same no matter who gets elected this November.
“Whoever becomes the U.S. President, Pyongyang is saying that it will stand on an equal footing with the U.S. as the part of nuclear-weapon states,” Dr. Cha Du-Hyegn, former secretary to President Lee Myung-bak for crisis information, told NK News.
Featured Image: Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, edited by NK News
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