hankyoreh

2003. The government has denied the group to entry into South Korea recently

Seven members of Hantongryeon, the Korean Alliance for Democracy and Reunification in Japan, including Vice Chairman Song Hyeong-geun, attempted to enter South Korea to participate in an annual commemorative event held at Mount Geumgang June 15-16 but were denied entry, with Seoul declaring the group as being against the state. The seven group members, all South Koreans residing in Japan with South Korean passports, entered North Korea via Beijing.

Hantongryeon was established by a group of Korean residents in Japan to promote the democracy and reunification of Korea in 1973. When the life of former President Kim Dae-jung, who at the time was a pro-democracy activist against the dictatorship of President Park Chung-hee, was threatened by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, the predecessor to the National Intelligence Agency, the group campaigned to save his life.

In a telephone interview with The Hankyoreh on June 24, Song Se-il, the secretary-general of the organization, said that group members thought it would be meaningful to go to North Korea via their motherland of South Korea, rather than entering the North via a third country. They were denied entry by South Korean authorities on May 28, however, when the government declared Hantongryeon an “anti-state organization.”

The seven members of the group have visited South Korea freely in the past, and having the government of President Lee Myung-bak take issue with it now is like turning back the hands of time, Song added.

The group was unable to gain approval for their North Korea visit under a regulation that restricts groups labeled “anti-state” and “pro-enemy” from traveling to the North.

However, the members of Hantongryeon were permitted to visit South Korea in 2002 and 2004 under the government of former President Roh Moo-hyun. They said they had been rehabilitated when they met with former President Kim during a previous visit to South Korea, according to the group.

In addition, approximately 10 Hantongryeon members participated in an event held in May to commemorate the April 3 uprising, after President Lee took office and without any problems. The April 3 uprising took place from April 3, 1948, to September 21, 1954, and it resulted in approximately 30,000 casualties.

The government’s sudden disapproval of the group’s entry into the North is likely to incite controversy. An official of the National Intelligence Service said, “As Hantongryeon hasn’t been removed from a list of anti-state organizations, the government did not allow its members to visit the North via the South. Besides, key figures of the group who want to enter South Korea should come under investigation in connection with past incidents.” Regarding the fact that key figures of Hantongryeon were allowed to visit South Korea in the past without being investigated, the official said that their visits to the North were permitted on a limited basis due to the situation at the time.

Hantongryeon was designated as an anti-state organization when, in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling, one of its members, Kim Jeong-sa, who was a Korean resident in Japan at the time, was designated as a spy. However, a fact-finding committee of the National Defense Ministry announced in November 2007 that the incident had been manipulated, saying that Kim’s behavior was not consistent with spying. The committee supported Kim’s assertion that he had made a false confession after being tortured.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]