By Kang Hyun-kyung
With less than 10 days to go before the April 11 National Assembly elections, an abrupt “red scare” controversy is gripping the political sector.
The essence of the allegation is that five or more key figures of the minor Unified Progressive Party (UPP) have a past record of pro-North Korean activities and some of them might still have links with the communist state.
Analysts say the recent red scare debate is related to the division of democracy fighters who took to the streets together in the 1980s to overthrow the authoritarian government.
In the 1990s, some of them changed their position and became human rights activists for North Korean citizens, whereas others joined the progressive party with their alleged pro-North Korea ideology remaining intact.
The latest red scare controversy shows a clash of ideas between the two groups.
It first erupted weeks ago when Rep. Lee Jung-hee of the UPP resisted calls to give up her bid to run in the April elections in Seoul as a unified opposition candidate after her aides were found to be involved in survey rigging.
Some media reported the so-called Eastern Chapter of Gyeonggi Province, a radical pro-communist group, was behind the rise of Rep. Lee as a progressive icon and that they flexed their muscles in decisions on her.
The allegation showed signs of easing after Rep. Lee withdrew the bid.
Han Ki-hong, author of the book “Shadow of the Progressive Wing,” denied the media report, claiming the so-called Eastern Chapter has never existed.
“In 1992, the South Korean Federation of University Students Council, a radical student group also known as Hanchongryun here, used to call democracy fighters based in the eastern part of the province that. But they had neither an office nor organized forces there. They simply called them as such,” he said.
Han, a former democracy fighter for 15 years since entering a university in 1981, also said Rep. Lee is not part of the Eastern Chapter either as she had been a practicing lawyer based in Seoul before entering politics.
Citing an insider, Han said the term North Korea still remains taboo among UPP members.
“Still many UPP people display a sort of anxiety about a North Korea element. They fear that the progressive party will be destabilized if they shift their stance on North Korea,” he said. “This explains why they remain calm on other issues, but become nervous when someone criticizes North Korea.”
The red scare controversy was rekindled in late March as a ruling party candidate alleged several UPP people were linked to North Korea.
Ha Tae-kyung, a ruling party candidate running in the Gijang District in the southern port city of Busan, urged the UPP leadership and some candidates, including Lee Seok-ki, allegedly having pro-North Korean sympathies, to come c;ean regarding their ideology.
In a radio interview, the 44-year-old made the point that the UPP people should make clear their current position on their past pro-North Korean activities because they are running in the election for a public service post.
Ha was a former democracy fighter when attending Seoul National University and then dedicated his life to improving human rights conditions of North Korean citizens in the mid-1990s after learning about the humanitarian crisis there.
His remarks were construed as meaning that the UPP figures he pointed to were advocates of the North’s Juche (self-reliance) ideology, alleging South Korea is a colonial state of the United States and therefore a communist revolution is needed to save the country from U.S. influence.
The North Korean version of communist ideology was coined by the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung to educate and brainwash its people.
Ha indicated the UPP figures must make public if they still hold on to the Juche ideology as their vision to reform South Korea.
The UPP strongly denied the allegation. Woo Wie-young, a UPP spokeswoman, characterized the allegation as a right-wing conspiracy.
Woo told The Korea Times over the phone that the ruling Saenuri Party, in collaboration with a group of conservative media, fanned the red scare as a campaign tactic.
In a statement, the UPP said Lee Seok-ki, one of the several progressive party members Ha named as a former North Korea spy, is a political prisoner who was pardoned and reinstated after serving a jail term years ago.
“The ruling party and three conservative newspapers painted Lee as a North Korean spy to consolidate conservative voters as the elections are just around the corner,” it said. “It is old politics.”