Violent crackdown on "followers of the north"

Violent crackdown on "followers of the north"

Now the legitimate rights and activity of the progressive political parties and organizations in south Korea are criminalized by the present south Korean regime’s violent crackdown on them and it suppresses pro-reunification personages demanding inter-Korean reconciliation, exchanges and reunification.  

Shortly ago, the south Korean authorities detained Hwang Sun, representative of the Forum for the Study of Politics Desired, on a charge that she "supported and praised the north" in violation of the "Security Law."

Meanwhile, they expelled Shin Eun-mi, Korean professor in the U.S.,  from south Korea on Jan. 8 after questioning her on a charge that she praised the north at an event held in November last year for giving her impressions of the DPRK with Hwang Son attending.

They went the lengths of investigating Im Soo-gyong, a female lawmaker from the Democratic Alliance for New Politics, finding fault with a few words said by her to greet Shin at the event.

The south Korean conservative mass media and bodies slandered their remarks in exaggeration and laid a complaint against them.

Some days ago, Hwang noted in a press conference that she has been engrossed in the movement for national reunification to promote inter-Korean trust.

Shin, in a talk concert, expressed her impression of her visit to Pyongyang without color and asserted peaceful reunification.  

What Hwang and Shin said can never be a crime but they deserve praise as members of the Korean nation.

If the south Korean authorities label those personages devoting themselves to peace and the reunification of the country as "those following the north" and mercilessly crack down on them as now like a "witch hunt", the distrust and confrontation between the north and the south can never be defused.

The members of progressive organization of south Korea held a press conference on Jan, 8 at a Christian hall in Seoul to slam the south Korean authorities’ policy of inter-Korean relations and confrontation against the fellow countrymen and strongly denounce the present regime’s suppression of the progressive forces in the wake of dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party. 

They should halt their fascist crackdown upon the progressive pro-democracy forces through the racket for eliminating "followers of the north" and respond to the efforts of the fellow countrymen for achieving independent reunification through the improvement of the north-south relations.