A ruling party lawmaker is seeking to disqualify overseas Koreans connected to anti-state organizations from voting in the general elections next year by limiting passport issuance.

Rep. Chung Mi-kyung of the ruling Grand National Party submitted Friday the revision bill of the current Passport Act to the parliamentary secretariat, officials said.

According to the bill, the government would refuse passport applications of overseas ethnic Koreans involved in anti-state groups as stated in the National Security Law.

Without a valid passport, overseas residents may not register themselves as eligible voters in the general election next April.

The purpose of the newly-added clause is mostly to deter members of Jochongnyeon, the pro-North Korean federation of Korean residents in Japan, from influencing domestic political races.

“We face the necessity to prevent North Korean manipulation in our politics,” said Rep. Chung.

“The ministry, together with the National Election Commission, admitted the legal loophole which can be exploited by North Korea and welcomed the revision bill,” he added.

Jeong Hoon-gyo, director general of the NEC’s overseas election department, also said earlier that the government and the parliament are to devise measures to prevent national security breach situations.

Currently, some 85,000 ethnic Koreans are presumed to be members of the pro-Pyongyang body and 50,000 of them are without passports and thus legally eligible to apply, according to the Justice Ministry.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)