I spent hours studying the transcript of remarks made by Lee Seok-ki and his United Progressive Party colleagues in an allegedly secret meeting in a hall in Mapo, western Seoul, in May. The full text was published by the Seoul-based Hankook Ilbo newspaper in two installments this week while other papers printed excerpts.

After reading the material, I thought of two possibilities for Lee to avoid punishment in the Republic of Korea: He may claim insanity ― it smacked of a degree of insanity to me ― or he may demand deportation to the North, though the latter will be legally too complicated, if politically imaginable.

I felt pity on the people who took part in the session, wondering if they knew the real meaning of what they were talking about or listening to. Then, fury surged toward whoever might have put them into such a state of hallucination. Lee’s analysis of the present domestic and external situation was generally incoherent, lacked logic and insight and when some participants raised questions about his arguments, he told them to find answers by themselves, betraying the immaturity of his leadership.

He exhorted the audience to be ready for glorious death in a revolutionary war, something that brought my thoughts to the tragedies of suicide attacks by terrorists in the Middle East. “What is to be done here now,” he repeated, is to prepare for an imminent war in the South “politically, militarily, materially and technologically.” A reader of the text is just reminded of Lenin’s famous dictum more than a century ago which has been chanted by his latter-day disciples in the East and West.

National Assemblymen are to vote on the prosecution’s request for the approval of the arrest of Lee, who faces charges of plotting a rebellion, in accordance with their individual opinions. Our lawmakers must by now have a better grasp of the nature of the pro-North Korean “fundamentalist progressives,” as they call themselves, their strategic objectives and practical tactics, all so unrealistic and ambiguous.

UPP members initially denied that there was such a session of the “Revolutionary Organization,” but as days passed they asserted that the NIS fabricated and distorted contents of speeches there. They later claimed that the intelligence agency bribed a member to record the session secretly. It was an obvious attempt to deny the legal value of the evidence during trial but they were inadvertently admitting the subversive nature of the May 12 event and the accuracy of the transcript.

As big a hit as the detection of the meeting was for the state intelligence agency, which was still weathering a political storm over its agents’ Internet postings during the presidential campaign period last year, the UPP unit session on preparing for a “revolutionary war” was a foolish act of self-destruction. Hadn’t anyone in the leadership or rank and file anticipated a bugging of the session or leak of its contents from the inside?

Or did they really believe that what they talked about was within the scope of constitutionally permitted partisan activity as the UPP cadre now claims? Their discussions included the making of lethal weapons out of imported toy guns, producing homemade bombs following the process available on the Internet and even targeting the telecommunication centers in Seoul’s Hyehwa-dong, suburban Bundang and the “world’s largest oil storage facility in Pyeongtaek.”

Someone in the group did point out the unrealistic quality of the debate, according to the transcript. But Lee and other speakers were dead serious in envisioning the revolutionary war in the South that should be timed with an open conflict between the two Koreas, which would be inevitable because of the “murderous aggressiveness of the U.S. imperialists” and Southern collaborators.

Lee delegated subdivided sessions to work out practical measures to prepare for the revolutionary war politically and militarily. It was a night of cult worship where individual participants were duped and forced into searching for ways to arm themselves with whatever materials were available before the impending Armageddon of an imperialist aggression.

There was no mention of struggle against capitalists or conglomerates or any specific reference to political parties or social groups. There were only “enemies” in the South called by various vulgar names. The leader praised the North’s nuclear capabilities as the pride of the Joseon nation and spoke of terminating the progressive-conservative confrontation here with Juche thoughts, the state ideology of the North, and ending 60 years of a repressive system in the South. He predicted a final victory over Americans at the end of national history.

Reacting to the RO event, some former National Liberation activists said they felt sorry for the participants of the reported RO session. They doubted that the force represented by the 130 men, probably consisting of about 50 party cadre, 30 workers and 20 farmers, are capable of doing any real harm to our social order. The so-called “eastern Gyeonggi elite” are actually said to be people who are too poor to engage in any “revolution” business.

Armed revolution ― words that may fascinate some people ― can no longer be a realistic goal or slogan even to extreme fanatics in this solidly democratic republic. This society should, however, guard itself against the growth of any subversive elements with the vigilant service of state intelligence apparatus. One only believes that these parasites of democracy will precipitate their own demise if they continue on their illegitimate, unconstitutional course.

Progressivism led by labor activists here has made steady growth over the past decades as a natural result of industrialization. It had to remain a meager minority here, however, as the liberals with the history of anti-authoritarian struggles would not concede the main political platform against the conservatives. Labor progressives’ alliance with the pro-North elements and their brief coalition with the Democratic Party allowed the entry of the likes of Lee Seok-ki into the legislature last April, but the consequences have been disastrous as shown in the RO episode.

Shim Sang-jeong, Cheon Ho-sun, Rhyu Shi-min and other progressives are urged to make their stance clearer in regard to the Lee group. And more important is the awareness of the main opposition Democratic Party that shedding any modicum of sympathy with pro-North elements is the best policy to broaden its popular base in the 21st century. 

By Kim Myong-sik

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