The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) accused the civic group of an "enemy-benefiting behavior" and the liberal rival Democratic Party (DP) of being "anti-state" for defending the civic group. The DP counter-accused the ruling camp of "McCarthyist" tactics of oppressing people's freedom of expression.
The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), one of South Korea's largest civic organizations in South Korea, had written to the Security Council raising doubts over the results of a multinational probe that concluded the South Korean corvette Cheonan was downed in a torpedo attack by North Korea.
The 1,200-ton patrol ship tore in half and sank on March 26, killing 46 sailors who were trapped inside.
North Korea denies its involvement and calls the results a "sheer fabrication."
Based on the investigation's outcome, Seoul referred the case to the U.N. Security Council for international condemnation and punishment of its communist neighbor.
In a meeting of party lawmakers, Kim Moo-sung, GNP's floor leader, charged the DP's defense of the civic group as "anti-state behavior."
"I want to ask how long the opposition party will continue to deepen the division of national opinion and speak for the pro-North Korean group by endlessly raising questions about the government's announcement," Kim said.
Rep. Hwang Jin-ha of the GNP, a former general, also said complicating Seoul's diplomatic efforts to punish North Korea is anti-state behavior.
The group cannot earn public support for its behavior and must be criticized for "damaging the nation's image," the lawmaker said.
Chung Sye-kyun, chairman of the DP, refuted the ruling party's accusations, arguing it is the role of civic groups to address critical views on certain issues.
"It's a really narrow-minded and wrong attitude for the government to overreact, exaggerating it as an issue of national identity and belittling the civic group," Chung said in a meeting of the party's supreme council.
Many people remain critical of the government for its oppression of people's freedom of expression, Chung said.
"A civic group's delivery of its opinion to a U.N. body is not an issue serious enough to be made into a national issue," Woo Sang-ho, spokesman of the DP, said in a statement. "Defining a civic group as an enemy-benefiting organization because of its activity critical of the government should be denounced as a McCarthyist behavior," he said.//Yonhap
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.
View more comments