North Korean Press Attacks GNP

The North Korean weekly Tongil Sinbo criticized South Korea’s opposition Grand National Party’s reaction to South Korean professor Kang Jeong-koo of Seoul’s Dongguk University, who said the Korean War should be regarded as a “war for unification.”

In a strongly-worded article in its latest issue, published on October 15, the weekly said, “[The GNP’s reaction] is the pathetic grumbling of losers who were nudged out of the mainstream by the opening of unification era [opened by the June 15 Joint Declaration].”

The article said, “Vigorous political, economic, and military exchanges and cooperation efforts are under way between North and South Korea. The post June 15 era has long hurled the anti-unification [National] Security Law into the grave.”

It also said, “It is indeed an outmoded and imprudent act that the GNP is making fuss about an academic statement by a scholar and demanding conviction by the Security Law. The GNP is the enemy of Korean people that is blocking the integration and unification of them.”

In response, GNP spokeswoman Chun Yu-ok said, “North Korea should give up its aspiration to communize the Korean Peninsula.”