[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Loonies are people too

Much has been written lately about the abolition of South Korea’s powerful National Security Law and the blocking of pro-North Korean Web sites, the latest being the Kim Il-Sung University Web site.
I believe the law should be abolished; I have a problem with someone being persecuted for what he thinks. It’s actions that count for more.
Apart from burning a few U.S. flags and other cowardly acts like hassling the ‘freeNK’ Internet radio station, these pro-Pyongyang groups like Hangchonyon and the Pan National Alliance for Reunification are pretty soft.
Here they sit in South Korea, well fed and safely expressing their views on the Internet; that’s impossible in the country they claim to support.
They have been taught from a young age what a rotton place North Korea is and the reality is that they know it. They would as much willingly live in North Korea as they would give up their cellphones, TV and Internet for a week. We certainly didn’t see them, in the spirit of reconciliation and reciprocity, offer themselves to their Korean Paradise to replace the thousands from North Korea fleeing and settling in South Korea. But stupidity and untruthfulness shouldn’t be crimes. Let those groups read and think what they want and they’ll continue to be the loony fringe of society where they belong.

by Brendan Brown