SKorea Security Law Change Urged

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SKorea Security Law Change Urged

c The Associated Press

 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - President Kim Dae-jung has urged his ruling
coalition to revise a national security law that allows rival North Korea to
be considered an anti-state organization, government officials said Saturday.

``It is inappropriate to term North Korea as an anti-state entity while
proposing inter-Korean reconciliation and exchange,'' Kim was quoted as
telling leaders of his ruling coalition during a dinner Friday.

Crafted 50 years ago to fight communism, the law maintains a sweeping ban on
``anti-state activities.'' Although it does not directly mention North Korea,
courts have repeatedly invoked the law to rule the North an anti-state
organization and punish people accused of sympathizing with it.

Kim wants the law revised to exclude communist North Korea.

The president has been seeking greater economic ties and other engagement
with the North as a way of easing tension on the divided Korean peninsula.

The law has proven to be a major stumbling block to such efforts.

The U.S. government, Amnesty International and the United Nations also
oppose the law, saying it can be used to suppress political opposition. North
Korea has also demanded that the law be abolished.

At least 150 people, most of them students, are in jail after being
convicted under the law.

The law used to be so broadly interpreted that even possession of Marxist
literature was a crime.

``Communism collapsed not by containment but through openness,'' Kim was
quoted as saying Friday. Politicians and presidential aides relayed his
remarks to journalists Saturday.

Kim's efforts to revise the law's harsher articles have been slowed by
opposition that comes even from within his own ruling coalition. Most
lawmakers belonging to Kim's coalition partner, the conservative United
Liberal Democrats, are reportedly opposed to the proposed revision.

South Korea's National Assembly plans to open debate on the law's revision
in Parliament later this year.

Kim himself was jailed under the law and once sentenced to death by military
rulers during his days as a pro-democracy campaigner in the 1970s and 1980s.

AP-NY-10-23-99 1044EDT

 Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.