Vol. 77/No. 42      November 25, 2013

Along with disbanding the party, the government wants to kick its six legislators out of the National Assembly and cut off $630,000 in state subsidies the party receives for being in parliament. The last time the government banned an opposition party was in 1958, when U.S.-backed dictator Syngman Rhee arrested opposition leader Cho Bong-am and dissolved his Progressive Party.

In its demand that the Constitutional Court outlaw the party, the Justice Ministry cited the 1960 South Korean Constitution, which bans parties whose activities “are contrary to the fundamental democratic order.”

In late August and early September four Unified Progressive Party officials, including legislator Lee Seok-ki, were arrested and charged with “conspiracy to commit a rebellion and violating the National Security Law.” South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, cited as evidence a speech made by Lee at a party meeting in May. The Korean press also plays up that participants sang the “Red Flag” song that it associates with the North.

The Justice Ministry charges that the party’s program is “identical to the arguments coming from Pyongyang.” It cited its goal of “overcoming foreign domination and dissolving South Korea’s dependence on the alliance with the U.S.,” and its characterization of South Korea as “not a society where the workers are master, but the reverse, one where a privileged few act as masters.”

The main bourgeois opposition to Park’s New Frontier Party, the Democratic Party, which was previously in an electoral alliance with the Unified Progressives, has said little about the proposed ban except to call it “very regrettable” and to hope for “a wise decision” from the court.

Some government opponents say that the National Intelligence Service is going after the Unified Progressive Party to distract attention from a brewing scandal over revelations that the spy agency had orchestrated a campaign to smear Park’s opponents during the presidential elections.

The Korea Herald applauded the government’s move. “We hope the government’s unprecedented action brings an opportunity to rein in anachronistic pro-North Korea elements in the South.”

The Hankyoreh, another major daily, said Nov. 6 that “the misguided effort by a government to disband a particular political party is a complete denial of constitutionally guaranteed values, including the right of the people to vote.”

The Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on the government’s request.

On Oct. 24, the Ministry of Employment and Labor stripped the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union of its legal status for allowing fired teachers to keep union membership, contrary to government anti-union laws. On Nov. 13 a Seoul court granted a temporary injunction against the ministry until the court issues a final ruling.

The Teachers and Education Workers’ Union has been accused by the government in the past of being “pro-North Korea.”

Some 68 percent of the union’s 60,000 members voted Oct. 16-18 to reject the ministry’s demand. The union was founded in 1989, when the government banned teachers and other public workers from participating in politics or expressing their own political views, but didn’t have official recognition until 1999.

“There is a long history in South Korea of accusing people who don’t agree with the government of being communist,” Hyunsu Hwang, international secretary of the union, told the Militant by phone from Incheon, South Korea, Nov. 12. “If you say anything about reunification of the North and South they say you are for North Korea. It’s McCarthyism.”

“The Unified Progressive Party didn’t do anything violent,” Hwang said. “How could they be trying to organize a coup d’état when they don’t have any military force? It’s ridiculous.

“Personally, I am not a supporter of this party, but the government action is not in line with a democratic society. The ruling party wants to go back 30 years,” Hwang said, referring to previous dictatorial regimes in South Korea.

Hwang said the attack on the union is backfiring. “Hundreds of teachers have joined the union since the government began its threats,” he said. “The ruling party thinks they can control the Korean people, but they can’t.”  
 
 
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