Ruling party ups attacks on North Korea sympathizers

By Chung Hee-hyung

The ruling Saenuri Party Friday retched up its offensive against the opposition parties describing them as a breed of pro-North Korea sympathizers who may run directly against national security.

When the two lawmakers of the minor Unified Progressive Party (UPP) were found involved in a voting fraud in selecting the party’s proportional candidates, few thought the issue would go beyond alleged voting irregularities and intra-party factionalism.

The Saenuri Party, however, was quick to capitalize on the two lawmakers’ pro-North sympathies. Since then, a parade of conservative politicians joined the fray in attacking not only the individual lawmakers but the entire opposition as well for its pro-North stance.

“We were shocked to find that the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) was packed with pro-North sympathizers,” said Jung Woo-taek, a senior lawmaker of the ruling party, at a television interview, Friday.

Another conservative lawmaker gave an equally stern message. “Even former North Korean spy agents are running for the National Assembly seat,” stated Saenuri’s floor leader Lee Han-gu at the party’s Supreme Council meeting.

No less a personage than the president himself joined the attack on pro-North sympathizers. “We should never tolerate those who deny the very order of liberal democracy,” declared President Lee Myung-bak at a Memorial Day speech on Wednesday. “They could destroy our Constitutional order.”

“The controversy surrounding pro-North sympathies is not simply a matter of ideology or political polarization,” a senior official of the Chong Wa Dae noted. “These sympathizers pose a serious threat to national security.”

An opposition lawmaker stirred further controversy when it was belatedly discovered that Rep. Lim Su-kyung retweeted a message from a North Korean propaganda website back in January.“Cheong Wa Dae is a collection of war-mongers with President Lee Myung-bak at its head,” stated the tweet message.

The opposition in turn vigorously responded to what it called a “political conspiracy” that smacked of “McCarthyism.”

“I wonder why the ruling party is sticking to the age-old Red Syndrome and tries to portray them as North Korean agents,” said DUP’s floor leader Park Jie-won at a radio interview on Friday. “They are attempting to turn the course of history back to the military era.”

Rep. Lee Hae-chan, a DUP heavyweight who is running for the party’s chairmanship, said at Tuesday’s press conference at the National Assembly that the ruling party was seized with “madness” caused by “malicious McCarthyism.”