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Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan and Grand National Party chairwoman Park Geun-hye meet each other at the Catholic University of Korea, Hyehwa-dong, Seoul on Monday. They shake hands before talking about issues such as the National Security Law.
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Religious elders such as Cardinal Stephen Kim Su-hwan and Buddhist monk Ven. Beob-jang, the head of the General Affair Department of Korean Buddhism¡¯s Jogye Order, showed negative views on the ruling Uri Party¡¯s policy to eliminate the National Security Law on Monday.
According to a participant in the meeting of Cardinal Kim and Park Geun-hye, chairperson of the opposition Grand National Party, the cardinal told the chief of the GNP, ¡°I said a revision of the security law may be O.K., but it would be troublesome if the law was abolished. But what I meant has been wrongly conveyed.¡± GNP spokeswoman Jeon Yeo-ok said, ¡°Concerning some media companies¡¯ reports that the cardinal is in favor of abolishing the security law, he explained that his opinion had been wrongly conveyed. He also said that he is very sorry for the deepening divisions in this country.¡±
Ven. Beob-jang told Uri Party chairperson Lee Bu-young, ¡°Isn¡¯t it O.K. if the law is not used in violating human rights, as it was in the past.¡± As chairman Lee answered that the international community is urging Korea to eliminate the security law, the Buddhist monk said, ¡°Politics is to protect the country and democracy that matches Korea's real situation is more important. Other countries don¡¯t understand Korea¡¯s grief caused by the division.¡±
Beob-jang pointed out that the majority of the people are opposed to the abolition of the National Security Law, saying, "However excellent an idea may be, it cannot be good if most people take it otherwise."
(Park Doo-sik, dspark@chosun.com )
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