Seoul to scrap Cold War relic, anti-North law

[bemildred]

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's ambitious capital-relocation plan has been scuttled by the Constitutional Court. The nation's pre-eminent judicial body ruled, rightly most argue, that it is beyond the president's franchise arbitrarily to redesignate the nation's capital, especially as Seoul has been so designated for more than 600 years. The court also declared that any such change would have to come about through the consensus of the nation (read: referendum) and subsequent constitutional revision.

Roh has conceded defeat. The capital, at least for now, will stay where it is. This is probably for the best, as Roh's Uri Party has its collective hands full pushing through a legislative repeal of its own.

The Uri Party's National Assembly majority has presented the progressives with a rare opportunity to remove the decades-old National Security Law (initially enacted in 1948 and revised seven times, most recently in 1988), clearing away unhelpful legislative flotsam, a relic of the Cold War. That the National Security Law (NSL) is an anachronism despite Roh's unflinching policies of constructive engagement is obvious. The law prescribes strict judicial punishment - ranging from one year to life imprisonment or even death, depending on the severity of the violation - for "anti-state" activities. North Korea is defined as an "anti-state entity", and forming a pro-North group (Article 3), accepting money from a pro-North group (Article 5), praising or sympathizing with North Korea (Article 7), or meeting with anti-state (North Korean) groups (Article 8), among other infractions, all potentially carry prison sentences.

These vaguely defined articles in essence make illegal all those activities that the government seeks to encourage through policies of engagement. The NSL also allows for intrusive clandestine monitoring of those suspected of being involved in such activities. The state's use of enforcement provisions within the NSL to intrude covertly into citizens' lives by wiretapping and other forms of electronic eavesdropping is well documented. Jo Seong-nae, a Uri Party member of the National Assembly's Committee on Government Administration and Home Affairs, recently made public a National Police Agency report indicating that from January 2001 to June of this year, 1,730 warrants for electronic surveillance were issued. Of course where "anti-state" activities end and where "anti-incumbent administration" activities begin is difficult to pin down, the law's loose definitions encouraging legislative mission creep.

Asia Times