A conservative group calling itself the Committee for the Normalization of the State on Thursday said that it will publish a biographical dictionary of pro-North Korean activists next year and that a list of the first 100 people is to come out in December. The move comes after the Institute for Research on Collaborationist Activists, a leftwing think tank, recently announced a plan to publish a similar dictionary of Koreans who supported the Japanese colonial rule.

In a press conference on the day, the committee vowed to expose the "true identity" of pro-North Korean activists by publishing the dictionary detailing their activities and ideological propensities. It claimed they "denied and impaired the identity and the free democratic system of the Republic of Korea."

The group began gathering materials on such people in February 2007. Since June last year, about 40 experts, including former and current academics, have been working as writers or editors on the book.

About 5,000 people were selected first based on media reports about their activities or remarks inciting, praising, propagating, or sympathizing with North Korea, or attacking the constitutional order of South Korea. Among them, 100 were chosen for the first list because they allegedly are still active in their own fields, have some influence, and have obviously engaged in pro-North Korean activities, the committee claimed.

The committee plans to make a final review of the list after listening to objections from the targets themselves. It pledged to include their personal refutations in the dictionary as well. The group said it left out the deceased because they are no longer in a position to complain.

Some other rightwing groups are protesting against the decision to leave out former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.