Anchor: North Korea has held a mass rally condemning South Korea for allegedly insulting Kim Jong-un and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The rally was a response to what the North perceives as an insult to its former and current leaders, but the North appears to have other motives as well. Our Kim In-kyung reports.

Report: North Korean media aired a live broadcast of a mass rally held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang Sunday. The North's official Korean Central Television said 150-thousand citizens and troops attended the rally. Top military and communist party officials showed up en masse, including Vice Chairman Ri Yong-ho of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, and People's Armed Forces Minister Kim Yong-chun.

Speakers at the rally denounced South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, calling them a "group of gangsters." North Korea's Foreign Ministry also released a statement Sunday, saying the North will "punish the South Korean government mercilessly." North Korean media published more than 100 reports criticizing the South from Friday through Sunday.

The attacks apparently started after some South Korean media reported that South Korean soldiers at a base in Incheon stuck photos of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his son and successor Kim Jong-un on the door of their barracks and wrote "Knock out Kim Jong-il! Kill Kim Jong-un!"

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said North Korea is intentionally attacking the South to strengthen its solidarity before Kim Jong-un officially completes the power succession process in mid-April. It is believed that Kim Jong-un inspected the North's missile command headquarters on Friday and toured the truce village of Panmunjom on Sunday for the same reason.

It is also likely that North Korea was incensed by recent international criticism of China's forced repatriation of North Korean defectors. In addition, North Korea may be trying to undermine South Korea's ruling party ahead of the April eleventh general elections by highlighting a deteriorating South-North relationship. A South Korean government official said he expects North Korea to focus on attacking the South more as the elections near.

Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.