Ideological Battle Intensifies Over NSL

Following President Roh Moo-hyun’s call for the repeal of the National Security Law, the government and the ruling Uri Party have begun to revamp support for the law’s repeal. In response, the opposition Grand National Party and some Uri lawmakers have started to strongly argue for the law’s revision, rather than repeal, stepping up the ideological standoff over the NSL.

The Uri Party has to date remained unclear about whether to repeal or reform the NSL. However, Uri chairman Lee Bu-young and its floor leader, Rep. Chun Jung-bae, started to set the NSL’s repeal as a party line on September 6.

“Eradication of the NSL is the confirmation of North-South reconciliation, which shares the same pulse of global trends,” Rep. Chun said at a central committee meeting, while clarifying his support for the repeal by saying, “The NSL issue is not just an ideological issue any more: It is the issue that can be used to measure the maturity of society.”

At a press conference, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said, “Since President Roh has clarified his support for the repeal, his position is the government’s position.”

However, eight conservative and moderate lawmakers of the Uri Party: Yoo Jae-gun, Ahn Young-geun, Ahn Byong-yup, Sim Jae-deok, Chung Ui-yong, Suh Jae-kwan, Yoo Pil-woo and Park Sang-don held a meeting where they concluded that time is not ripe for the repeal and decided to submit a proposal for the revision of the law to the party leadership.

Their revision proposal calls for the repeal of Article Two on self-acclaimed governments, for the repeal of Clause One of Article Seven on the encouragement and praise of the enemy, and the repeal of Clause Five of Article Seven on the possession of enemy-benefiting publications.

Meanwhile, the GNP began to intensively attack the president’s public support for the NSL repeal at a series of meetings by the steering committee, the Ad-hoc Committee to Defend the Constitution and National Identity, and by its lawmakers.

“The repeal of the NSL is tantamount to the renouncement of the state of rule of the law by ignoring the Supreme Court’s and the Constitutional Court’s rulings,” said Park Geun-hye, the GNP chairwoman. “A series of such remarks have shaken national values, to the point that some question whether Korea is normal or not.”

The Korean Democratic Labor Party and the New Millennium Democratic Party support the repeal, while the United Liberal Democrat Party opposes it.

Young-Chan Yoon Min-Hyuk Park yyc11@donga.com mhpark@donga.com