By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter


North Korea is threatening to continue its boycott of inter-Korean talks if it finds any remnants of South Korea’s anti-communist National Security Law after the legislation is abolished by the ruling Uri Party.

In an unusually strong attack on the progressive Uri Party, Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland questioned its commitment to fully eliminating the security law, which was enacted more than 50 years ago to guard against the North.

``The Uri Party, which has been good at conjuring tricks to appear in favor of scrapping the security law, is now revealing its hypocritical, anti-unification attitude,’’ the committee was quoted as saying by the North’s Korean Central New Agency.

``If we find any remnants of the current security law in the Uri Party’s legislation, there will be no progress in inter-Korean relations,’’ it said.

Until now, the conservative Grand National Party, which opposes abolishing the law, has taken the brunt of North Korea’s criticism.

The majority Uri Party plans to introduce a bill to scrap the security law to the National Assembly this week and has said it will revise criminal law to deal with anti-state crimes such as treason and espionage.

But the North said abolishing the law was just a face-saving move by the ruling party.

Pyongyang appears to be concerned that anti-communist clauses from the security law will be integrated into criminal law.

Statements in the North Korean media had earlier criticized a Uri Party proposal to enact a new security law to replace the current legislation, which is blamed for allowing past military government to suppress democracy activists.

The North, upset over a surge of defectors to South Korea and other issues, has halted inter-Korean talks in recent months.

In a separate article posted on the Internet yesterday, a pro-Pyongyang organization in Japan called on the South Korean government to choose between its alliance with the United States and reconciliation with the North.

``If George W. Bush is reelected, the Roh Moo-hyun government should choose whether to put its priority on its U.S. alliance or relations with its brethren,’’ it said.

Commenting on the U.S.’ delayed troop withdrawal and recent joint military drills, the group said South Korea is obviously leaning towards the U.S. ``It’s not difficult to predict that the Roh administration is going to rebuild Seoul-Washington relations.’’

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr