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Koreans demand repeal of National Security Law

Published Feb 23, 2005 10:51 AM

It is hard to imagine a more repressive statute than South Korea's National Security Law, which has been on the books since 1948. Under this law, political prisoner Kim Sun Myoung was held in solitary confinement for 44 years--a world record. Other long-term political prisoners were held for decades because they refused to renounce their political beliefs.


New York
WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

Under the NSL, people could be, and were, thrown into jail--and even executed!--for such offenses as "enemy-benefitting activities." The "enemy" referred to is North Korea. The Korean people, who have had one culture and language for thousands of years, have been divided ever since World War II. U.S. troops in the South enforce this cruel division, which affects millions of Korean families.

For the last six months, a vigorous campaign to repeal the NSL has been waged in South Korea by a coalition of over 300 civic organizations and popular movements, including the National Alliance for Democracy & Reunification of Korea, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the Korean Peasants League, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Korea Truth Commission. Even the South Korean government's own Human Rights Commission has recommended the repeal of the NSL.


Los Angeles
Photo: minjok.com

The law is especially anachronistic now that the two halves of the Korean peninsula are engaged in a process of dialogue and exchanges long prohibited. While government officials and business figures from the South regularly visit the North, private citizens can still be arrested for making the trip. So hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions and, in the fall, 600 went on a hunger strike calling for the law's abolition.

But hard-line rightists allied with the U.S. occupation forces are furiously opposed, predicting that crowds of people waving the flag of the Workers Party of Korea, the governing party in the North, will flood downtown Seoul if the law goes down to defeat.

The campaign to repeal the NSL reached the U.S. on Feb. 19. In Los Angeles, New York and other cities with significant Korean communities, candlelight vigils were held to abolish the hated law.

The Los Angeles protest took place at a busy intersection in one of the largest Korean population centers outside Asia. The locale has seen several vigils--most recently one opposing the sending of South Korean soldiers to Iraq.

In New York, the vigil was held at 32nd Street and Broadway, heart of the commercial area known as Koreatown.

Sponsors of the campaign include the Korea Truth Commission, which has an online petition and explanation of the law at korea-is-one.org, One Korea-L.A. Forum, and the Korean American East Region Alliance to Abolish National Security Law.

Workers World Party and the Inter national Action Center also participated in solidarity with the Korean movement. In Los Angeles, Judy Greenspan spoke on behalf of WWP.


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