Groundless rumors on NK, new leader rattle S.Korea

South Korea is being shaken because of anxiety over the new leadership in North Korea.

Since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last month, jitters over the North have spread quickly in the wake of rumors of a coup and explosion at nuclear facilities taking their toll on the South Korean stock market. Such market instability indicates that the outside world is looking with caution in North Korea under the new leadership led by the young and inexperienced Kim Jong Un.

Around 2 p.m. Friday, a rumor rapidly spread in Seoul via Web messengers that Japan`s Kyodo News Agency reported the North’s light-water reactor in Yongbyon exploded around 11 a.m., leaking radioactive material. Another rumor had it that the radioactive material was headed for Seoul.

The KOSPI, South Korea`s main stock price index, saw a drop of 1.11 percent to 1,843.14.

South Korean authorities including the National Intelligence Service, the Defense Ministry and the Unification Ministry scurried to gather information, only to confirm that the rumors were groundless. Kyodo also never released such a report.

Financial authorities in Korea say stock price manipulators were behind in the rumor, asking police to launch an investigation. A probe will be conducted into whether investor groups earned illegal profits through put options, or derivatives that yield profits when stock prices go down.

South Korea`s neighbors also have fears of North Korea under Kim Jong Un. A rumor about a coup in the North spread Wednesday through Weibo, or China`s equivalent of Twitter, saying the military had taken control over Kim Jong Un and Pyongyang’s state-run TV station.

The rumor was unfounded as the station was running normally at the time, but showed how edgy people in South Korea are over a possible upheaval in the North’s leadership.

Such rumors are expected to continue until the Kim Jong Un administration convinces the outside world that it is in charge.

"North Korea is in a situation in which it has to reorganize its power structure to solidify the Kim Jong Un administration at an early date,” said Kim Yong-hyeon, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul`s Dongguk University. “Now that an environment for groundless rumors has been created, various rumors will likely keep spreading for the time being.”

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