Dumb and dumber on the National Security Law

The National Security Law has once again taken center stage in Korean politics, with the two major parties clashing over South Korea's identity vis-a-vis the DPRK.  The Marmot has already covered the issue over at the Hole, so I will post what I think in my own little bit of cyber space. 

The crisis was sparked when Justice Minister Chun Jung-bae made an unprecedented intervention in ordering the prosecutor's office not to detain leftist professor Kang Jeong-koo while investigating his possible violation of Article Seven of the National Security Law (praising an anti-state organization).  While Oranckay says that secret interventions were common in the past, this is the first time that a justice minister has exercised that authority in an official order.  Korea's chief prosecutor, while obeying the order, resigned in protest.

Yonhap has a nice little article on the current row that touches on a lot of what I want to talk about.  First the basics:

Park Geun-hye, the head of South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), called for an all-out struggle to defend the country's democracy, accusing President Roh Moo-hyun of trying to damage, if not overthrow, the system.

Shortly after Park's remarks, ruling Uri Party Chairman Moon Hee-sang held a news conference and criticized the GNP for stoking public insecurity while putting ideological issues ahead of parliamentary by-elections in late October.

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae denounced the GNP for exaggerating the threat to the country, which it said did not actually exist, just to make political use of it for the by-elections.

This is one of the rare times when you will see me siding with Roh on anything.  While there is a chance that Kang would go into hiding, it seems to be that he relishes the attention being showered upon him and he will not be going anywhere soon.  That kind of breathless talk from Park makes her and the GNP look overbearing to say the least. 

Not to be outdone in to stupidity department, Chung 'Vlad' Dong-young is throwing his own bombshells:

"I am confused about her anarchistic remarks in denouncing the government's identity," Chung said during a forum in Seoul.

Leave it to Chung to make the GNP's latest bout of mass insanity look just a little bit less crazy.

But Chung's dumbness doesn't let the GNP off the hook.  The most frustrating think about this to me is that, time and time again, the GNP overplays its hand and alienates just enough of the electorate to keep themselves out of power.

Park did make one correct move in calling for Roh to specifically repudiate Kang.  If she would have left it at that, Roh and the OOP would have been caught between alienating their base on the left by criticizing Kang or making themselves look out of touch by refusing to criticize him (much like the Rovian plot with Ward Churchill last year). 

The Kang controversy could have even been a launching point for a whole series of flanking moves against Roh on his overly accommodating policies towards the North.  They could have called for routing food aid through the World Food Program and insisting on full monitoring of aid distribution; making human rights in North Korea a top issue (especially closing the labor camps for political prisoners); and insisting on greater reciprocity from the North in all their dealings.  It is a debate that is long overdue.

Instead, Park and the GNP make themselves look like the extremists counterparts to the nut-job professors backing Pyongyang.

Please Lord, let a real conservative party rise up before the 2008 elections.

Comments

[oranckay]

"The most frustrating think about this to me is that, time and time again, the GNP overplays its hand and alienates just enough of the electorate to keep themselves out of power."

Well said. I do wonder if they're retreating back to their local constituents again, at risk of alienating voters nationally, like they did during last year's general elections, but who knows.

"Please Lord, let a real conservative party rise up before the 2008 elections."

Ain't gonna happen. Like all good conservatives they're so good at discipline and staying on message (I'm reminded of how too many of the sane ones grudgingly voted for impeachment) that it will take losing another presidential election, and then _maybe_ by the next general elections they'll change just enough. I'm sure, for example, they won't run people like Chung Hyung Keun (who just about everyone believes was involved in torture) as candidates again.