Convicted spy`s letter

Minsaengdan was an organization formed in the early 1930s by imperial Japan to undermine an anti-Japan group of Koreans and Chinese in northeastern China. After the arrest of the group`s spies, Chinese members of the organization killed innocent Koreans. Senior Korean members also accused each other of being Minsaengdan spies to save themselves. North Korea founder Kim Il Sung said in his memoir that more than 2,000 communists were massacred by their colleagues because of just eight or nine spies. The North has repeatedly educated its people on the Minsaengdan incident to avoid a similar incident.

Jang Min-ho, who is in a South Korean prison after being convicted of spying for the North in 2006, said in a recent letter that the latest crisis of the minor opposition United Progressive Party is similar to the Minsaengdan incident. On the party`s voting fraud scandal in the nomination process for its candidates for the April 11 general elections, the letter, which is posted on the party`s Internet homepage, claimed that the voting was "formal democracy historically imposed on us by foreign forces." He also called as "factionalists" the party`s reformists and media who urge the resignation of Lee Seok-gi and Kim Jae-yeon, the party`s lawmakers elected through the proportional representation system.

This is a typical method of blaming the party`s crisis on others and covering up the election fraud. Jang has often used North Korean-style expressions. In particular, he praised Pyongyang`s third-generation hereditary power succession as "enhancing the military-first political capability generation after generation." No wonder people like him are criticized for being North Korea followers "to their bones." He apparently meant to call North Korea his "fatherland" in past reports to the North.

The bulletin board on the progressive party`s homepage was full of comments denouncing Jang. Critics blasted him for giving progressives a bad name by spying for the North. Others said he "sold the party`s heart to North Korea." Jang is considered the main culprit behind the breakup of the progressive Democratic Labor Party in 2008 due to the allegation that a party faction followed the North. Certain progressive party members warn that his letter might dampen the party`s reform efforts.

Jang defended the party`s pro-North faction apparently in consideration of the party`s convention set for June 29. He seemed to think that regaining hegemony over the party by uniting the faction and joining hands with neutralists would prevent the expulsion of Lee and Kim. Yet how can such an outdated message stop the party`s reform drive? The only thing more foolish is if he had communicated with North Korea.

Editorial Writer Jeong Yeon-wook (jyw11@donga.com)