North Korea reports South election result

North Korea has reported Park Geun-Hye's victory in the South's presidential election -- a day late, with no mention of her name, and no reference to the historic nature of her win. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which had previously devoted considerable time and space to denouncing Park Geun-Hye and her ruling conservative party, recorded her victory in a one-line report late Thursday. "The candidate from the New Frontier Party was elected with a slim margin in the presidential election in the South," said the report, sourced to foreign and South Korean news media. There was no separate commentary or editorial. The North Korean reaction was actually speedier than for previous presidential elections, when it has sometimes taken two or three days to register the result. And current President Lee Myung-Bak's victory in December 2007 was not reported at all. Yonhap news agency quoted one analyst who went so far as to suggest the one-day time lapse this time around was a sign that Pyongyang might seek to mend ties with the new Park administration. Park, the daughter of former military ruler Park Chung-Hee, will become South Korea's first woman president, after winning Wednesday's poll against her liberal rival Moon Jae-In. North Korea had made its electoral preference very clear early on in the election campaign, attacking Park, her party and her father's divisive legacy. Even before Park won the party presidential nomination in August, KCNA had slammed her candidacy, warning that "a dictator's bloodline cannot change away from its viciousness". During her campaign, Park had distanced herself from outgoing President Lee's hardline policy towards Pyongyang and spoken of the need for greater engagement with the North. But in her first post-victory policy statement on Thursday, Park made it clear she still viewed Pyongyang as a serious threat and would put the South's national security before any trust-building programme.