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At an emergency party convention on Monday, members of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) voted against all the key points in a reform plan its emergency committee had prepared aiming to distance the party from its North Korean political affiliations. The emergency committee had diagnosed the causes of its defeat in the 2007 presidential election as stemming from its label as being pro-North Korean, pro-union, overly dependent on the umbrella labor group Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and unable to represent the rights of temporary workers. But leading members voted to delete those words from the party¡¯s reform plan. Also thrown out of the window was a proposal to oust members of the DLP who had been convicted by the Supreme Court of spying for North Korea. Rep. Shim Sang-jeong, who temporarily led the DLP on behalf of its leadership and urged party members to look at how it is being perceived by the public, resigned as chairwoman of the party's emergency committee.
Ashamed of its own reflection in the mirror, the DLP has chosen to break the mirror. But that doesn¡¯t change the way the party looks. It says North Korea pursued a nuclear weapons program to defend itself from threats posed by the United States and Japan. There is hardly any difference between the DLP¡¯s principles and those of North Korea¡¯s Workers¡¯ Party. The DLP was confident it would garner 5 million votes during the presidential election. But the reason the party garnered a paltry 710,000 votes was because of its ambiguous identity: the public had lost all confidence in the party. Yet when the bill to oust convicted spies from its ranks was tabled before the party¡¯s convention, forces within the party vowing not to be defeated by South Korea¡¯s National Security Law took control of the floor. There were DLP members brandishing banners with slogans calling for closer ties with the North.
The factions within the party -- the anti-American National Liberation group and the socialist People¡¯s Democracy group -- are leftovers from the 1960s. No progressive political party in the world still engages in such outdated ideological debates, which are now found only in museums. A majority of the DLP members who voted against the reforms are members of the National Liberation faction, which traces its roots to the National Liberation front that upheld North Korea¡¯s Juche ideology during the 1980s. They used to bow as a sign of respect in front of portraits of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il. And with this faction controlling the DLP, it is accurate to call the party ¡°pro-North Korean¡± and owing allegiance to Pyongyang -- even though it hates the labels.
It is clear how voters will treat the DLP in April¡¯s National Assembly elections.
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