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Pyongyang opts for foe of 'human trash' Bush.
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According to a survey of 5,904 Internet users, 76.2 percent of the respondents supported Kerry whereas only 23.8 percent supported President George W. Bush.
In South Korea's December 2002 presidential election, voters elected Roh Moo-Hyun who pledged not to "kowtow" to the United States amidst a surge of anti-American sentiment.
In the most recent survey, 65.5 percent of those supporting Bush and 68.7 percent of those supporting Kerry said the North Korean nuclear issue would be resolved peacefully. They expect Kerry, if he wins, to come up with a more flexible posture in dealing with North Korea.
The survey, conducted on Aug. 19 by Jeong-gyeong News, a monthly magazine run by senior South Korean journalists, came at a time when North Korea is stalling international talks on its nuclear programs, also hoping that Kerry will win the U.S. presidential election.
"The North Koreans made it very clear, politely, that they want Kerry to win the election," said Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. diplomat who was in Pyongyang earlier this month for a conference.
Bush has maintained a hard-line stance in dealing with North Korea, putting pressure on the communist regime to give up its nuclear ambitions. Bush said his administration would not give in to "nuclear blackmail."
Bush enraged the North shortly after taking office when he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il a loathsome "pygmy" and then later branded Kim's impoverished nation a member of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
But Kerry has vowed to open direct talks with North Korea to resolve the nuclear standoff. "The North Korean nuclear crisis became more serious while the George W. Bush administration concentrated on Iraq, and it was reported that North Korea produced enough new materials to make six to nine nuclear bombs," Kerry said in a recent speech.
South Korea's top nuclear negotiator said last week he expects no breakthrough in the nuclear impasse before the presidential elections in November due to tensions between North Korea and the United States in the wake of the recent exchanges of insulting remarks against their top leaders.
North Korea has called Bush a "fascist tyrant" and a "human trash" and said it can no longer "pin any hope on the six-party talks" due to Washington's "hostile policy" against it.
"Political situations are developing to make it difficult to reach an agreement," Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck said. "I don't think the situation will allow the United States to reach an agreement one month before the presidential elections, and North Korea is also likely to want to see the outcome of the elections," he said.
