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Korea Times Choe Tells NIS Not to Go Soft on Dissident
Scholar Song By Ryu Jin Opposition leader Choe Byung-yul said yesterday that the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country¡¯s spy agency, should give a reasonable explanation if it draws a different conclusion to its previous view from its current inquiry over visiting South Korean-German scholar Song Du-yul¡¯s alleged links to communist North Korea. Rep. Choe, chairman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), said during a meeting of party officials, ``If the NIS makes a contradicting conclusion on the dissident without any understandable reason, the party will cut next year¡¯s budget (for the agency) except personnel expenses.¡¯¡¯ Song, 59, a philosophy professor at Muenster University in Germany, was questioned by NIS investigators for a second straight day after returning to his native country after 37 years in exile on Monday. Song is suspected of having been a secret member of North Korea¡¯s Politburo since the early 1990s under the alias Kim Chol-su, and of enticing a South Korean student to defect to the North. He denies the allegations, which, if found to be true, would constitute a violation of South Korea¡¯s anti-communist National Security Law. The NIS, with only investigative rights and no judicial power, will decide how to deal with Song under the state prosecution after finalizing its investigation. But the agency is agonizing over future steps since the country is experiencing a serious ideological divide. In addition, Song¡¯s case has diplomatic implications since he is a German national. The German government has shown interest in Song¡¯s trip, asking South Korea to make sure that his human rights are not infringed upon during the inquiry. Choe¡¯s remarks are interpreted as being conscious
of the country¡¯s conservative forces as the politically conservative
GNP has accused the Roh Moo-hyun administration of being leftist. The
GNP, with a majority number of seats at the National Assembly, once tried
in vain to expel NIS chief Ko Young-koo, taking issue with what it called
his pro-North Korean inclinations. |