Pro-N. Korea lawmaker hit for rejecting national anthem

Parties call Lee ‘anarchist,’ add pressure for his resignation

By Lee Tae-hoon

The ruling and opposition parties joined forces Sunday in lashing out at pro-North Korean lawmaker Lee Seok-ki for having rejected the county’s national anthem “Aegukga.”

Lee, a legislator of the minor opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), who is being pressured to give up his seat for his sympathetic views toward Pyongyang, argued “Arirang,” an old folk song used by a South-North Korean combined sports team in lieu of their respective national anthems, should be adopted as a replacement.

Following the revelation, the parties called the controversial lawmaker an “anarchist.”

Rep. Hwang Woo-yeo, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party even went further to declare the party would launch a special National Assembly committee to prevent possible leakage of confidential information by pro-North Korean legislators.

The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), which has been engulfed in an ideological dispute over its lenient stance on North Korea, issued a warning to Rep. Lee over his politically-charged remarks about the national anthem.

“It is not appropriate to make Aegukga a matter of ideological contention,” DUP spokesman Kim Hyun said. “We urge Lee to act with common sense when dealing with politics.”

Earlier, the Saenuri Party criticized Lee for playing a leading role in a “blind end soap opera” by rejecting the national anthem.

Critics cited the fact that Aegukka has been used as the national anthem since the establishment of the South Korean government in 1948 and was recognized as the official anthem by law in 2010.

Nevertheless, the scandal-ridden legislator argued that Arirang, the popular folk song both in South and North Korea, should be regarded as the true national anthem during a meeting with reporters on Friday.

“Forcing the public to sing Aegukga is an act of totalitarianism,” Lee said, adding that the current national anthem is a byproduct of the past military regime that oppressed the people.

This not only raised eyebrows but made people wonder why Lee took up the issue amid prosecutors’ investigation into a corruption case involving his consulting and marketing firm, CN Communications, and a move to expel him from his own party for vote rigging in its primary selection of proportional representation candidates in the April 11 National Assembly elections.

Pundits say his outlandish remarks are aimed at diverting the people’s attention from his responsibility for the fraudulent intra-party election and charges levied against his company in an attempt to save his parliamentary seat.

They claim that Lee wants to exacerbate the internal feud of the UPP between moderates and his pro-North Korean followers to turn the intraparty discord into an ideological clash.

“Lee has more to gain than lose with the controversial remarks about the national anthem,” said Han Ki-hong, president of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights.

“If Lee succeeds in shifting the public’s attention to his inappropriate ideological stance, he will manage to forestall some of the criticism about his involvement in the vote-rigging scandal.”

The Assembly or political parties do not have authority to expel lawmakers based on a dubious ideological stance without solid evidence of treason or anti-state plans.

The UPP decided last week to deprive Lee and another pro-North Korean UPP lawmaker Kim Jae-yeon of their party membership due to the vote rigging.

The two are expected to file an appeal against the decision as they have a good chance of reversing it since the appeal board is made up of the UPP’s 13 lawmakers, including Kim and Lee, many of whom are known to be loyal to the latter.