By Kim Jung-yoon
Rep. Park Won-seok of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) said Thursday it will sing the national anthem at its official events. The UPP has sung “The March for My Love” on major occasions instead.
The move came as Park, leader of a special committee on party reform and members including interim leader Kang Ki-kab decided to transform the party into a public progressive one, reinventing its image from being pro-North.
“I came up with the resolution after a long discussion with the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) interim leader Park Jie-won that it is inevitable the UPP will discard the pro-North image that spurs public outrage,” said Kang on the reform policy.
Yet the UPP, split into mainstreamers and rebels, is struggling over its ideology, mainly on North Korea issues. Despite the plan for a policy shift, members of the pro-North faction are insisting on maintaining their ideological stance.
They evaded queries by citizens on their blind obedience to the Stalinist regime in a television debate Wednesday.
Lawmaker-elect Rep. Lee Sang-kyu sparked public fury in an answer to a question by Hong Ji-young, a citizen panel member who participated in MBC’s “Debate in One-hundred Minutes.”
Asked about his view on the issue of North Korean human rights, the North’s “juche” (self-reliance) ideology and the third-generation hereditary power succession in Pyongyang, Lee criticized the question itself. He said it is insulting for citizens to frequently use the term “pro-North,” since it encroaches on the freedom of his political beliefs.
“Such use of the term Jongbuk, a pejorative connotation for not just sympathizing but blindly following the North, means that this country still does not allow the freedom of conscience by constantly verifying whether a person is not a communist,” he said.
Another proportional representation lawmaker-elect Lee Seok-gi answered on the same subject by saying he “agrees with a left-wing professor’s intrinsic approach to North Korea,” avoiding specific answers to the main question.
He also expressed regret over the frequent use of the term “Jongbuk” or pro-North Korean among people.
He then led the debate off topic by portraying landscapes and the atmosphere in the Stalinist state, recalling his visit to Pyongyang. The people urged him to stop avoiding the issue.
In another TV debate hosted by KBS, Lee Jung-hee, former co-chairwoman of the UPP was asked whether the 1950 Korean War was triggered by the invasion of the North or the South. She said she needed to answer the question after thinking about it more comprehensively.
The debate panels of the UPP appeared on the television program while refusing to resign over voting fraud in candidate selection for last month’s National Assembly elections.
The UPP has caused a stir with its pro-North Korea stance, allegations of vote-rigging in choosing candidates and a disregard of democratic procedures.
Yet its members have failed to resolve the vote-rigging dispute and caused further social disturbance with factional conflict and physical clashes during committee meetings.
Public criticism of the illegitimacy of lawmakers in parliament related to the scandal is ever mounting, as they believe it could pose a serious threat to national security.