Security Law Revision Is Hot Debate Topic

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Security Law Revision Is Hot Debate Topic

President Kim Dae-jung's recent comment that he will push to revise the National Security Law without a reciprocal change in North Korean policy is reverberating throughout the political world.
Mr. Kim's ruling party wants to to decriminalize offenses including "praising and encouraging" North Korea.

Under the National Security Law, southerners are forbidden from supporting or praising North Korea in any manner.

Those who join pro-Pyongyang organizations or have unautho-rized
contacts with North Koreans are subject to harsh punish-ment,
although the law is not universally enforced.

Although details of the revisions sought by Mr. Kim are not known, it would probably lift that ban on expressing admiration for the communist state.

The law also identifies the North as an anti-state entity.

The advocates of revision, including President Kim, claim that the law is out of tune with the inter-Korean rapprochement now under way.

The opposition Grand National Party said Tuesday that the debate to amend the law may well spark an ideological clash and national division.

"Discussing a change in the National Security Law at this juncture carries the danger of sparking a left-right controversy which may prompt a volatile reaction from the public," Lee Hoi-chang, the opposition leader, said during a news con-ference Tuesday.

Mr. Lee's comment is the third in protest against President
Kim's statement of his position.

Mr. Kim said that the law should be revised even if the North does not change a statute of the North Korean Workers' Party saying the party's goal is to "complete its revolution," a passage widely interpreted here as a pledge to communize the South.

On Monday, a right-wing group, the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association, said it opposed Mr. Kim's comments on altering the law.

The United Liberal Democrats, a coalition partner with Mr. Kim's Millennium Democratic Party, said Monday that it is also opposed to changing the law.

by Seo Seung-wook

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