Intelligence Service refutes defector

The release of a statement by Hwang Jang-Yop, former North Korean Workers¡¯ Party secretary in charge of international affairs who defected to the South in 1997, protesting against limitations the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has placed upon his activities has created quite a ripple.

The statement came Monday under the title of "Our Position on Korean Unification." He expressed his intention to make public his contested article published earlier and to put it before the fair tribunal of public opinion. The paper was printed in an organ of the fraternity of North Korean defectors under the title of ¡°For the Victory of Liberal Democracy,¡± and its revised version likely will be reprinted in the November issue of the magazine. This might be his frontal challenge to the high-handedness of the NIS.

It was unprecedented for him to protest against the state intelligence service in charge of controlling and supervising defectors. It is all the more so inasmuch as he has been living in a safe house within the compound of the NIS under special protection. That the NIS placed restrictions upon the defector's activities came under fire is true. Hwang is one of the few exiles from the North who was best informed about the views of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Il and his leading subordinates and the peculiarities of the North Korean regime. Muffling his voice, therefore, is of no help in forming policies regarding North Korea and establishing a balanced general opinion regarding North Korea.

An NIS official refuted Hwang's statement Tuesday by saying that it had advised him to refrain from outside activities and to cooperate with the authorities in light of the likelihood of a heightened danger of terrorist attacks on him by North Korea as a consequence of his provocative remarks on North Korea. The NIS pointed out that since his exile here Hwang has written various papers and booklets without any limitation, with 12 volumes in eight titles published here so far.

"Hwang deserted North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in hatred of the strongman and seeks to get rid of Kim in contrast to the present Seoul government that accepts Kim's regime as a reality to be reckoned with and consulted," the official said. "Thus, the official says the conflict between the NIS and Hwang is derived ultimately from this difference of position."

It is easy to see from Hwang's statement that the NIS imposed a number of restrictions upon him because his criticism of the North Korean system was out of accord with the current sunshine policy of the Seoul government. The NIS also continued to claim that Hwang's refusals to meet former President Kim Young-Sam, who had requested an interview with him, or to attend a National Assembly hearing to which he had been summoned to testify were simply out of his own will. It produced a handwritten memo as evidence.

The contents of Hwang's pronouncement and its intense wording show that the explanation given by the NIS hardly is convincing. Whether the NIS had a hand in keeping Hwang from presenting himself before the National Assembly or not is yet to be confirmed. Yet it seems hardly conceivable for the NIS to allow the harsh critic of President Kim's policy of rapprochement with North Korea to go before the legislative floor where the opposition Grand National Party members are up in arms.

Experts find fault with the dubious conduct of the incumbent government indulging in such antics of gagging Northern exiles and making political capital out of them as under previous authoritarian governments, in spite of its pretensions to be an open-minded and square approach to inter-Korean relations based on consistent pursuit of sunshine policy and inter-Korean summit meetings.

Kim Young-Sik spear@donga.com