N. Korea Panel Against S. Koreas Security Law Disbanded
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The North Korean committee with the aim of abolishing South Korea's anti-communist National Security Law is presumed to have been dissolved last year, an official at the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.
The ministry released organizational charts of North Korea's government offices and agencies reflecting the changes over the past year.
"We reached the conclusion that the committee was disbanded, based on tips from multiple sources," the official said, requesting anonymity. "The committee has shown no activities recently."
The official did not elaborate on why the organization may have been dissolved.
A leading North Korea watcher, however, said the communist North appears not to have changed its stance regarding the South's security law that prohibits, among other things, unauthorized contact between South and North Koreans.
"It is too early to say that the committee has been abolished for any particular reason. It may just be suspending its activities or it may have been absorbed into other organizations," Prof. Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told The Korea Times.
"But one thing for sure is that Pyongyang has not changed its tone since it recently called for the abolishment of the law."
Early this month, the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling Workers' Party, published an article claiming that the South should abolish its outdated North Korea policies and security law.
The reclusive state said the measures hinder inter-Korean cooperation and provoke confrontation.
Meanwhile, the organizational charts showed that North Korea decreased the number of special divisions under its ruling party from 21 to 18.
Among the abolished department are divisions that used to conduct espionage operations against the South.
In addition, Kim Kyong-hee, a sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has been found to be leading the Light Industry Department under the Workers' Party Central Committee, the official said.
She recently came back into the public eye with her husband Jang Song-taek, head of the party's administration department.
According to reports, the couple accompanied Kim Jong-il during his on-site inspections of military units and other industrial plants last year.