By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Last Saturday, Korea's top Internet portal site, Naver, featured the paperback ``The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx,'' written by Prof. Alex Callinicos of King's College London, as its Book of the Day.
It came as a surprise to Chaekalpi, which translated the book into Korean in the early 1990s, because the publishing firm suffered big trouble due to it a decade ago.
``Our former president went to jail twice because of the book 10 years ago, which law enforcement agencies claimed violated the country's anti-communist law,'' Chaekalpi manager Kim Tae-hun said.
``We did not expect the same book to be recommended to tens of millions of Naver visitors with the same anti-Communist law in effect without any change,'' he said.
Under the National Security Law, publishers of Marxist books may be sentenced to jail terms. Even readers may face charges in South Korea, which is technically at war with the Stalinist North.
Kim said approximately 150 people snapped up the book over the weekend. Strictly speaking, they might end up behind bars, although the government rarely applies the National Security Law to readers of forbidden books.
This is not the first time this year that Naver has recommended Marxist books at its site, which an average of 17 million people access daily. In January, the Web portal came up with a book on famous female socialist Rosa Luxemburg.
The abrupt coverage of anti-capitalism books contrasts to Naver's hitherto Book of the Day portfolio, which focused on such day-to-day topics as movies, pictures, tourism and wealth management.
``To be sure, Naver seemed to have changed its policy of choosing books late last year in the wake of the financial crisis,'' said a Seoul analyst, who declined to be named.
``I think that the new policy has something to do with the financial crisis. People started to cast doubt on the sustainability of capitalism and Naver is responding to the trend,'' he said.
Lim Seung-soo, who authored ``Das Kapital That Even a Monkey Can Learn,'' concurs. After its debut last December, it has sold up to 7,000 copies to reach the best-seller list at Seoul's major bookstores.
``Not only unionists and social activists, but also ordinary citizens pay attention to my book. I can feel that they are ready to learn something like this,'' Lim said.
``So many groups ask me to give lectures, so sometimes I have to refuse. I think the trend has started since capitalism does not work properly, as shown by current financial distress,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Naver did not reply to questions on the criteria under which they select the Book of the Day and whether or not they had changed them recently.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
