Delay on Security Law

Prime Minister Lee Han-dong said Monday that the government will not move to revise the National Security Law in the first half of the year.

Revision of the controversial law has met with strong resistance from conservative groups.

"Of the three major laws up for reform, we will move most cautiously on the National Security Law," Mr. Lee said to the National Assembly. "However, we will complete work on human rights and anti-corruption bills in the first half of the year."

The 218th extra session of the National Assembly opened Monday, as the ruling Millennium Democratic Party and opposition Grand National Party ended a month-long stalemate to work on looming issues of the economy and public welfare.

The prime minister also pledged to rein in consumer prices and keep unemployment levels around 3 percent this year.

"We will also set up a deregulation center which will cut through red tape for domestic and foreign businesses," the prime minister said.

But at the Finance and Economy Committee, ruling and opposition lawmakers bickered over the government's tax audit of major media companies.

Opposition legislators attacked what they called the political motive behind the audit, the first since 1994, as the commissioner of the National Tax Service briefed them.

Emphasizing that the tax agency is just doing its job, Commissioner Ahn Jung-nam said that "the government has launched a tax probe into 23 national media companies and their affiliates." He added that the agency is also considering an audit of smaller local media.

Rep. Kang Un-tae of the ruling party supported the commissioner, saying that "it is only natural that the National Tax Service conduct audits of companies that haven't been reviewed for such a long time."

Rep. Ahn Taek-soo, however, charged that the central tax office is acting on orders "either from the Blue House or the Ministry of Culture and Tourism."

by Lee Yang-soo