Pyongyang criticizes South Korean President Park's 'swish of skirt'
Source: Agencies |
March 14, 2013, Thursday
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NORTH Korea's first public, senior-level mention of South Korea's first female president ended up being a sexist crack. The body that controls North Korea's military complained yesterday about the "venomous swish" of her skirt.
In recent days, North Korea has vowed "merciless" retaliation and said it will no longer abide by the armistice that ended the Korean War. Pyongyang is angry about ongoing US-South Korean military drills and about new UN sanctions.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the North Korean National Defense Commission's armed forces ministry repeated those threats while decrying South Korea's own recent rhetoric, including a warning from Seoul that North Korea's government will "evaporate from the face of the Earth" if it ever uses a nuclear weapon.
"This frenzy kicked up by the South Korean warmongers is in no way irrelevant with the venomous swish of skirt made by the one who again occupies" the presidential Blue House, the spokesman said in a statement.
President Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late South Korean President Park Chung-hee, took office on February 25. She lived in the Blue House as a girl and, starting from age 22, served for five years as her father's first lady after a gunman claiming orders from North Korea killed her mother in a botched attack targeting Park Chung-hee.
The term "swish of skirt" is often used in Korean to describe women acting in a way seen as overly aggressive.
Moon Mee-kyung, an analyst at the government-affiliated Korean Women's Development Institute in Seoul, called North Korea's use of the term an insult against South Korea and all women.
"We don't say a 'swish of pants' when describing men. The term disparages women as a group," she said.
Before Park became president, a poem carried by the North Korea government Uriminzokkiri website described her as a "dirty prostitute" and a "yushin prostitute" who pulls up her skirts in front of the United States.
Park's father proclaimed what he called a "yushin constitution" in 1972 to prolong his control of the country.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry in 2009 called then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "a funny lady" who sometimes "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."
In recent days, North Korea has vowed "merciless" retaliation and said it will no longer abide by the armistice that ended the Korean War. Pyongyang is angry about ongoing US-South Korean military drills and about new UN sanctions.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the North Korean National Defense Commission's armed forces ministry repeated those threats while decrying South Korea's own recent rhetoric, including a warning from Seoul that North Korea's government will "evaporate from the face of the Earth" if it ever uses a nuclear weapon.
"This frenzy kicked up by the South Korean warmongers is in no way irrelevant with the venomous swish of skirt made by the one who again occupies" the presidential Blue House, the spokesman said in a statement.
President Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late South Korean President Park Chung-hee, took office on February 25. She lived in the Blue House as a girl and, starting from age 22, served for five years as her father's first lady after a gunman claiming orders from North Korea killed her mother in a botched attack targeting Park Chung-hee.
The term "swish of skirt" is often used in Korean to describe women acting in a way seen as overly aggressive.
Moon Mee-kyung, an analyst at the government-affiliated Korean Women's Development Institute in Seoul, called North Korea's use of the term an insult against South Korea and all women.
"We don't say a 'swish of pants' when describing men. The term disparages women as a group," she said.
Before Park became president, a poem carried by the North Korea government Uriminzokkiri website described her as a "dirty prostitute" and a "yushin prostitute" who pulls up her skirts in front of the United States.
Park's father proclaimed what he called a "yushin constitution" in 1972 to prolong his control of the country.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry in 2009 called then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "a funny lady" who sometimes "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."
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