By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter


With the government’s ongoing efforts to form a reconciliatory atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula, an increasing number of ideological disputes are likely to prevail in South Korea, as freedom of expression regarding the North is still not permitted, at least for the time being.

Police said they will again summon Professor Kang Jeong-koo of Dongguk University on suspicion of violating the National Security Law in his pro-North Korean remarks.

The 60-year-old sociology professor was questioned by the police twice last month after saying that the 1950-53 Korean War should be regarded as a ``war for unification,’’ according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA).

Kang’s remark in his column on an Internet news media site in July triggered immediate protests from conservative groups while accusing him of worshipping North Korea. They claimed what Kang said was similar to North Korean propaganda.

The professor stirred controversy again by calling for the immediate withdrawal of United States forces from the peninsula and denouncing South Korea’s dispatch of troops to the war-torn Iraq as a ``suicidal policy,’’ during a seminar held by the National Association of Professors for Democratic Society (NAPDS) on Friday.

``Due to the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. and the presence of the U.S. military on the peninsula, we have been constantly exposed to the threat of another tragic war,’’ Professor Kang claimed.

He also strongly criticized the mainstream of Korean society, especially government officials in charge of national defense and foreign affairs, as being pro-American worshippers.

He added the involvement of the U.S. in the Korean War, which he claimed was initially started as a civil war, prolonged the strife, causing the deaths of 4 million people.

Meanwhile, the government’s decision to send the body of Chung Soon-taek, 84, an unconverted North Korean spy, to the North through the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom on Sunday was a previously unimaginable move from a ``cold war’’ perspective, but the Ministry of Unification said, ``The decision will contribute to reconciling the South and North further and resolving humanitarian issues.’’

Chung defected to the North in 1949, but was later arrested in the South when he was dispatched as a spy for the second time in 1958. Due to a declaration of conversion he wrote in 1989, which he later retracted, he was excluded from the list of North Korean long-term prisoners, who returned to the North in September 2000.

Meanwhile, human rights activists for North Korean defectors have claimed the government remains too conscious of pressure from Pyongyang.

Choi Sung-young, 53, head of a supporters’ group for North Korean defectors, said the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had informed him of possible terrorist attacks by North Korean agents. Choi, however, reportedly has not received any support from the government to ensure his safety.

``I got a phone call from an NIS official saying that our office in Seoul is exposed to possible attacks on Sept. 29,’’ said Choi. ``He told me to be careful not only in South Korea, but also in China.’’

Although he had been told several times to be cautious about possible terrorist attacks, this time the warning from the anti-espionage agency seemed to be most serious, he added.

According to the NIS, the Ministry of Unification and police are supposed to be responsible for Choi’s protection. Despite the ministry’s explanation that they have requested police to ensure Choi’s safety, police officials in the area of his residence in a town in South Chungchong Province said they have not received any request from the government concerning him. The police said they have been unable to deploy officers for his protection due to a lack of manpower.

Conservative civic groups have denounced the government for not expressing its official position on the conflicts over a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Inchon, west of Seoul. Anti-U.S. demonstrators have clashed with riot police, demanding the removal of the statue, which they claim is an impediment to inter-Korean reconciliation and unification efforts.

things@koreatimes.co.kr