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Citing “harm to national security,” the government says it is no longer going to permit “article exchanges” between media organizations in North and South Korea, the first time it has taken action of that kind.

The Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday that it had informed the Southern Committee for the Realization of the June 15 Joint Declaration’s (615 Gongdong Seoneon Silcheon Nam Cheuk Wiwonhoe) Media Headquarters that it was rejecting an application submitted in October of last year for permission to exchange news articles with its Northern counterpart organization.

The Korea Journalists’ Association, the Korea Producers’ Association, the Korea Internet Journalists’ Association, and other organizations that make up the Southern Committee’s news media subcommittee agreed, at the Fourth Inter-Korean Media Representatives Meeting in Pyongyang last October, that the two sides would exchange news articles, opinion pieces, photographs, and video footage between the Southern Committee’s official news outlet, Tongil Eollon(www.tongilpress.com) and the North Korean Internet news site Uri Minjok Kkiri (www.uriminzokkiri.com).

Citing “concern that it would harm national security, public order, and public welfare,” the Ministry of Unification said it would not be granting the necessary permit.

“Discussions with the relevant agencies led us to conclude that it would be hard for exchanges between media associations, instead of individual news companies, to be mutually pure article exchanges, and that it is highly likely the whole thing would be used by the North as a format for one-sided propaganda,” said a ministry official.

The Southern Committee’s Media Headquarters, however, says the Ministry of Unification’s position is “unconvincing.”

The Media Headquarters’ Kim Gyeong-ho, who is also the head of the Korea Journalists’ Association, said the plan was “never to just run Northern articles in Tongil Eollon as soon as we got them by email.”

“Each article is supposed to be examined by the Unification Ministry,” said Kim, refuting the ministry’s “concerns about harming national security.”

“We can only conclude that it was a political decision, that it is because our name includes ‘June 15 Joint Declaration’ that they are saying no to the whole program when they could easily approve or disapprove individual articles,” said Kim. “We are going to demand that the ministry disclose the accurate reasons and we intend to file a challenge to the decision.”

Those who were part of the application process say the ministry’s decision lacks balance. South Korea’s Yonhap News and North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency signed a “subscription agreement” in 2006, while the South Korean monthly Minjok 21 has, since 2001, been exchanging articles with the North Korean weekly Tongil Sinbo. Also, the South Korean Internet site Tongil News and the North Korean Uri Minjok Kkiri’s operating organization, the “June 15 Editorial Company” have been exchanging articles since 2007.

“It’s hard to be persuaded that they have good reason not to permit the same format of article exchange,” said Tongil News Editor Kim Chi-kwan.

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