BY BRIAN TAYLOR
Washington and Seoul are using recently alleged incidents of defections and spy activities by north Koreans to bolster their campaign against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as a probe against the Chinese government, and as justification for maintaining antilabor laws that sparked a massive strike wave late last year.

The apparent defection from the DPRK of Hwang Jang Yop, a longtime leader of the Workers Party of Korea, was splashed across the big-business press in mid-February and held up as evidence of "instability in North Korea" and "cracks in [the] regime." Hwang, who is currently in Seoul's embassy in Beijing, has been used by the Washington and Seoul to provoke and slander north Korea. "It's like Marx defecting from the former Soviet Union," said Hajime Izumi, who the Washington Post described as a "leading North Korean specialist from the University of Shizuoka in Japan."

That article stated that government rationing and lack of food - the result of two consecutive years of damaging floods that destroyed two-thirds of the country's grain crops - was leading to "instability" in north Korea. It quoted a Red Cross official in Beijing as saying the rations were "too much to die from and too little to live off of." The DPRK government has appealed for 2.3 million tons in food aid. Under pressure from the U.S. and south Korean governments, the United Nations World Food Program said it will only try to obtain 100,000 tons in assistance. Washington is touting its recent pledge to contribute the paltry sum of $10 million in aid as an outstanding gesture.

Following the "disappearance" of Hwang, the Washington Post paraphrased officials in Pyongyang as stating that he must have been kidnapped and that only his return would avert a forceful response. A statement by the DPRK Foreign Ministry on the state radio network later explained, "Our stand is simple and clear. If he was kidnapped, we cannot tolerate it, and we will take decisive countermeasures. If he sought asylum, it means that he is a renegade and he is dismissed." Seoul declared that this stance on Hwang was threatening.

Highlighting Hwang's presence at the embassy in China put pressure on Beijing to take sides on the issue. An article in the Washington Post noted, "China has long sought to avoid choosing sides in the Korean dispute, simultaneously seeking to maintain historic links to North Korea while forging closer ties to South Korea and wooing its investment." The south Korean companies Daewoo and Hyundai have alone invested more than $2 billion in China. This probe by the south Korean regime is another attempt to weaken the workers state of China and maneuver it to give greater recognition to Seoul.

At the same time the south Korean government has played up the shooting of Lee Han Young in Seoul, claiming north Korean agents were responsible. Lee was a pilot in the DPRK air force when he stole a MiG-19 fighter jet and headed to the south in 1982. Seoul paid him $500,000 for the aircraft and military information, plus some extra funds to get settled. Lee was shot in the head February 15, and is essentially brain dead.

South Korean Home Affairs Minister Suh Chung Hwa called the shooting "an assassination attempt by north Korean infiltrators." The basis for this assertion was that the bullets used in the shooting came from a Browning pistol, supposedly a weapon favored by DPRK agents. A few days later, south Korean officials reported that Lee may actually have been shot with a different type of gun. In addition, the New York Times suggested February 18, that Lee "who was known as a womanizer and who was deeply in debt, might have had other enemies."

Cops mobilize to hunt for `agents'
Nevertheless, the government immediately began whipping up an antispy, antiterrorist campaign, including a manhunt for the "agents" who supposedly shot Lee. Officials played up a alleged claim by Hwang that some 50,000 north Korean agents are roaming south - though even some U.S. officials have said the statements released in Seoul under Hwang's name are "dubious." Under a "terrorism alert," officials began blocking off sections of Seoul. Security police marched in formation up and down the streets.

This takes place as President Kim Young Sam is resubmitting for parliamentary debate legislation that expands the powers of Seoul's secret police. The measure was passed as part of a package of antilabor laws in a five- minute session of the National Assembly December 26, without any opposition legislators present. Hundreds of thousands of workers and students responded immediately with more than three weeks of strikes and mass demonstrations. The unionists suspended strike action in mid-January when the regime promised to submit the legislation for review, but said the walkouts would resume February 18 if the laws -which also attacked union rights and made it easier for companies to lay off workers - were not repealed. Union officials have now postponed the strike deadline to the end of the month.

Meanwhile, two south Korean legislators were arrested February 12 on charges of taking bribes from Hanbo Steel Industry Co., a subsidiary of the Hanbo Group, which went bankrupt in January. One of the arrested men, Hong In Kil, is a relative and close associate of the president. He allegedly received more than $900,000 from the company, in exchange for approving loans. Hanbo, the country's 14th largest company, took loans that exceeded its capital 22- fold before it went under. The National Assembly is scheduled to hold a special session to investigate the scandal. Kim ran for president four years ago on an anticorruption platform.  
 
 
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