2 in Leadership Seek Shift in North Policy

Two powerful voices within the ruling Millennium Democratic Party on Wednesday called on the government to rethink its policy on North Korea.

"There is the possibility that the government's civilian exchange policies may be co-opted by the North's unification strategies," Rhee In-je and Park Sang-cheon, members of the Supreme Council, said at a meeting of party executives. Unusually, the meeting was open to direct press coverage.

Some party leaders blamed the unification minister, Lim Dong-wan, for the fiasco of the Liberation Day joint events in Pyongyang last week. South Korean delegation members disobeyed government instructions and participated in events that the Seoul government regards as propaganda exercises.

"The unification minister should take responsibility for the damage done and the regression in inter-Korean relations," Representative Chough Soon-hyung said.

Calls poured forth for strict measures against leftist, pro-Northern thinking.

Chairman Kim Joong-kwon demanded that Mr. Lim reflect party opinions when devising policies.

A high-ranking official of the United Liberal Democrats, coalition partners of the ruling party, said its honorary president Kim Jong-pil had noted, "The country is in crisis and the Ministry of Unification is a real problem."

The Grand National Party reiterated its call for Mr. Lim's replacement.

In response, Mr. Lim announced he would review measures to strengthen the criteria for visits to the North and apologized for the ministry's failure to exercise firmer control when endorsing the visit.

"We expressed our regret to the North on the question of trust, delivered our protest and pressed for the prevention of the recurrence of such incidents," he said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors investigating 11 South Korean delegates to last week's festival announced that executives of the banned Pan-Korea Alliance for Reunification had made contacts with the North prior to the visit. "Their prosecution is inevit-able," they said.

The organization had announced on Aug. 12 that it would amend some of the principles of its reunification program that Seoul finds objectionable. It says it contacted North Korean counterparts in Pyongyang precisely to discuss these amendments. For this reason, prosecutors are said to be considering re-ducing the number of people to be penalized.

The prosecutors, however, are said to see no problem in prosecuting Professor Kang Jeong-koo under the National Security Law. Mr. Kang visited Kim Il-sung's birthplace and lauded his spirit.

Prosecutors are said to be weighing taking legal action against only the leaders among those who participated at events held at a controversial monument that symbolizes the North's reunification vision.

South Korean delegates said Wednesday that many more punishable acts of disobedience had occurred during the visit to the North. Several statements lauding the North Korean regime allegedly were written in visitors' books at Mount Paektu, Mount Myohyang and other places toured. Some women wept at the sight of a wax effigy of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung. Others were said to have agreed with North Koreans that they could not meet each other because of the U.S. forces in the South.

by Kim Chong-hyuk