North Koreans call their state a people’s democratic republic. “People’s” is redundant, as democracy is a system of the people, by the people, for the people, to quote Abraham Lincoln. The DPRK, however, is essentially a totalitarian dynasty.

Anyway, it is apparent that the Northerners wish to have their state classified as a democracy. If we respect their wish, the Korean Peninsula has a really broad spectrum of democracy pursued and practiced by various political groups with the North’s at the far left of the band.

Among multiple parties that stand for democracy in the southern half of the peninsula, one advocating “progressive democracy” was disbanded last week by a court order for the first time in the history of the Republic of Korea. The reason: It violated the basic democratic order of the republic by following the DPRK’s revolutionary strategy designed to conquer the South. Simply stated, it acted like North Korea’s branch in the South.

The United Progressive Party no longer exists as the Constitutional Court’s ruling is final. Its sign boards are taken down, offices are locked up, assets are confiscated and bank accounts are frozen. Its five lawmakers, three elected from district constituencies and two with the proportional representation tickets, lost their seats in the Assembly. They are on the street staging protest demonstrations along with other UPP members.

It was 14 years ago in January 2001 that the UPP’s predecessor, the Democratic Labor Party, was formed on the basis of the “Minjunochong” or the National Confederation of Trade Unions, the radical alternative union contesting with the moderate “Hanguknochong” or the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. In its heyday, the DLP won 10 Assembly seats and its candidate won 3.9 percent of votes in the 2002 presidential election.

Through divisions and mergers of the “progressive democratic” forces, consisting of labor activists, anticapitalists and antiestablishment dissidents, the UPP secured a foothold in the nation’s political system as the third party. In order to differentiate itself from the mainstream opposition, the leftist party took political postures increasingly sympathetic to the Pyongyang regime, earning the descriptive of “jongbuk,” or subservient to the North, a stronger condemnation than the previous “chinbuk,” or pro-North title, from the right-wing media and social groups.

It is a pity for the UPP that its three-year history roughly coincided with the reign of Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. The third-generation inheritance of power in 2011 and the comic process of image-building for the new leader to emulate his demigod grandfather, plus the merciless purge of Jang Song-thaek, the husband of his aunt, and continuing bellicosity toward the South with yet another nuclear test, thinned the ranks of chinbuk elements in the South.

The UPP failed to adapt itself to the changing environment and find a reasonable course to rally the support of the weaker and poorer who needed a legitimate force that could represent their interests. Lee Jung-hee and Lee Seok-ki drove them away, the former with her ridiculous 2012 presidential campaign and the latter with the clandestine anachronistic activities of the “Revolutionary Organization.” The main opposition Democratic Party, now the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, lost more than it earned through its election alliance with the UPP.

Over the past decade, notably through the latest elections, a new variety of political activism appeared in the democratic spectrum. Some liberals, having no roots in the labor movement or militant pro-democracy activism, were inclined to denounce the Korean conglomerate-dominant capitalism and weak welfare system. Entrepreneur Ahn Cheol-su, novelist Gong Ji-young, professor Cho Kuk enjoyed explosive popularity among the educated youth and stirred many voters who were reluctant to support any existing parties.

These so-called “Gangnam leftists” have their counterparts in the conservative camp, who in cyberspace and on SNS platforms rebuke the claims of the left often in harsh language and combative logic. Veterans’ organizations and a number of civic groups joining the National Action Campaign for Freedom and Democracy in Korea, including fraternities of refugees from North Korea, are at the right end of Korea’s broad ideological spectrum. They support the conservative Saenuri Party but sometimes embarrass it with their extreme actions.

The Constitutional Court, acting on a petition from the Park Geun-hye administration, erased the UPP’s purple color from the rainbow of Korea’s political fabric. Saenuri’s red and the NPAD’s blue remain, but the nation’s ideological spectrum continues to glow in varying hues, tints and shades from the left to the right.

In the deliberation of the UPP case, the court inevitably reflected the political spectrum: It was split eight to one with Justice Kim I-soo opposing the majority judgment of the party’s unconstitutional nature. In his minority opinion, which shared 180 pages of the 350-page verdict, Kim argued that Lee Seok-ki’s “RO” activities did not necessarily make the UPP a subversive group as he was not in control of the party of 30,000 members. Forced disbandment of a political party seriously restricts the freedom of political association, he claimed.

The division in court ruling should not diminish our trust in the system. As far as they are acting on their conscience and legal principles, the 8-1 score only demonstrated the firmness of the court’s decision in this case. I respect Justice Kim for his confidence and would like to emulate him in expressing my objection to one point of the court’s ruling: the removal of the UPP’s five Assembly members.

Disqualification of the two elected with the proportional representation tickets may be justifiable but the forced exit of the three from districts is hardly acceptable, considering that there are no statutory grounds for such an action. I should confess that I was, privately, not too happy to have my tax money used as salaries for the UPP lawmakers, but I think it is beyond the authority of the judges to remove those directly elected representatives. Their constituents could have given their votes to individual candidates who happened to be nominated by the party. This is my personal opinion as a citizen of this democratic republic.

Democracy is still being developed in the Republic of Korea three decades after the departure of dictatorship. If there was a near consensus pushing the removal of the UPP, the ideological spectrum in this country should be well taken care of to realize a truly stable democratic society. 

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. ― Ed.