Labor Party Delegation Tours N. Korea

Officials of the opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) who have arrived in Pyongyang visited places including a medium-sized power plant and a glass plant in Daean Wednesday. They also met with officials of the Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) who invited the DLP officials for talks on Friday and Saturday with North Korean high-ranking officials.

The DLP had requested talks prior to visiting Pyongyang with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il and Kim Young-nam, chairman of the North’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

The delegation of the DLP cancelled the visit to the Shincheon Museum they had initially planned just before their departure, according to sources. The museum exhibits contents about the U.S. soldiers’ civilian massacres.

The KSDP, which invited the DLP, is just a satellite party that has virtually no political power but supports the North Korean Workers’ Party (NKWP). The dummy party also belongs to the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

Meanwhile, the DLP held an emergency lawmakers’ general meeting and filed a defamation suit against Kim Seung-gyu, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), demanding the dismantlement of the NIS.

In addition, the DLP decided to file a complaint to the National Assembly’s Ethics Committee against several lawmakers of the opposition Grand National Party who made remarks connecting the visit to North Korea with 386 generation espionage operations. The DLP is also planning to conduct its own investigation into the alleged spy scandal.

“Several GNP lawmakers have allegedly said there are spies among our delegation to the North, so we will first check with the exact details of the speech and confirm to whom we will file complaints,” Rep. Lee Young-soon of the DLP said.

mhpark@donga.com