[Editorial] Unification Minister Chung’s Unconvincing Remarks on National Security Law

“The National Security Law has nothing to do with national security,” said Unification Minister Chung Dong-young at a regional conference of the Advisory on Democratic and Peaceful Unification. “National security is not warranted by a national security law in any country. The international community looks at the law as an appendix to the body.”

His remarks are hard to understand. Article One of the NSL reads, “The Law is intended to suppress anti-State acts that endanger national security, and to ensure the nation`s security, people`s lives, and freedom.” Isn’t it bizarre to say the legislation designed to protect national security has nothing to do with it?

Minister Chung probably heeded the law’s controversial clauses and its political abuses in the past. However, his remarks have crossed the line. How can we safeguard the security and legitimacy of the Republic of Korea under circumstances constrained by the bipolar national division without the NSL? The public already wants to ditch the controversial clauses. It knows this entirely well before Minister Chung resorted to irrational logic.

He said, “The National Human Rights Commission has proposed the repeal of the NSL.” However, he referred to a wrong case. We have to ask him why he cannot see the Constitutional Court ruling in favor of the NSL’s constitutionality and the Supreme Court ruling confirming the need for the NSL while he clearly sees the proposal by the NHRC.

He doubles as a permanent chair at the National Security Council. And precisely because he is in a position to preside over North Korean and security policies, his remarks were inappropriate. His remarks could be understood as an official statement that the repeal of the NSL is non-issue, although North Korea will not repeal the ruling Korea Workers Party’s rules that codify national unification under a communist mandate. The same remarks will have different repercussions, depending on who makes them. His statement will bring a different influence compared to similar remarks made by the justice minister, who is actually in charge of NSL issues.

This is why rumors continuously indicate that the repeal of the NSL is a barter agreement for a North-South summit. Suspicions should be amplified because the unification minister spoke out for the NSL’s repeal while the minister of justice is shunning official remarks on it.