The head of South Korea’s ruling party criticized a recent U.S. congressional hearing on Seoul’s anti-Pyongyang leaflet ban just a day before President Moon travels to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden. South Korean Democratic Party (DP) leader Song Young-gil also said that the United States is in a second-tier democracy.
“While the Republic of Korea was ranked 23rd and was assessed as a ‘full democracy,’ the United States and France were assessed as a ‘flawed democracy,’” said Song Young-gil on May 18. He was referring to the British magazine the Economist’s democracy index for 2020, which ranked the United States in 25th place.
“Such country’s congress…a member from the U.S. Congress announced that it will hold a hearing by saying human rights are violated in the Republic of Korea while citing the ‘anti-leaflet’ law that I introduced and managed to get passed. No one in the United States has any interest in this and it is just our country’s conservative media that is paying so much attention to the hearing held by U.S. congressmen.”
Song said he sent a letter containing his answers on the issue to the United States, but did not specify whom he sent to. “The Republic of Korea is a democratic country where freedom of expression is completely guaranteed, and North Korean defectors who file lawsuits against the elected President over espionage and treason and ask him to step down are not taken away,” Song said.
Song then defended his anti-leaflet law. “It sounds excessive to claim it is the right to freedom of expression when these leaflets carry digitally manipulated nude images of [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un and [his sister] Kim Yo-jong,” Song argued.
Song continued, saying that the United States banned the Twitter account of President Donald Trump while he was in office. He argued that the two Koreas are technically at war and releasing leaflets defaming the other party can be construed as a means of psychological warfare, and thus was subject to regulation.
He said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s past rulings also suggest that freedom of expression can be limited if there is a clear and existing threat, and that the South Korean government is not completely banning leaflets, just in circumstances where they can put people in danger.
Song added that the U.S. Congress holding a hearing on a law passed by the Republic of Korea’s legislative branch is “excessive interference in internal matters and not right.”
This is not the first time that Song has made controversial comments.
In January last year, Harry Harris, then U.S. ambassador to South Korea, showed his concerns over the South Korean government’s plan to unilaterally proceed with a North Korean tourism program. Song responded: “It is fine for him to express his opinion, but if we have to follow what the ambassador says…is the ambassador like the governor-general [from Japan] during the Joseon dynasty or what?”
Some politicians and commentators in South Korea also argued that Ambassador Harris’s facial hair evoked painful memories of the colonial era because it was reminiscent of the mustaches worn by Japan’s governors-general. His Japanese heritage and South Korea’s conflict with Japan fueled the controversy at that time. Song Young-gil was chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee of the National Assembly when he made such remarks about the Ambassador.
Ambassador Harris, whose term ended in January, held an email interview with the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper on May 18, 2021. When asked about the “governor-general” comment, Harris said that it was very unpleasant and something that cannot happen in a country that is trying to be a modern and progressive democracy like the Republic of Korea.
He added that he never thought that he would experience this kind of racial discrimination in South Korea. Harris added that he did not have any problems with people disagreeing with his position as an ambassador representing the United States but that he was disappointed by people attacking his family.
In December, Song made another controversial comment at a National Assembly official session. “They (the United States) have more than 5,000 nuclear weapons and improve and develop them every year, so how can they force North Korea not to have any nuclear weapons?”
He also said that “the alliance with the United States is not an alliance that we do whatever they tell us to do but is an alliance based on values and that the two countries share the same principles.” Song argued that the problem of conservative media is that its narrow-minded views make a big deal out of people’s negative comments about the alliance.
There are many other examples of Song showing his twisted and poor understanding of history and world affairs.
Last year, Song defamed the United Nations Command (UNC) stationed in South Korea as being “rootless” and a kind of auxiliary to the U.S. Forces in South Korea. He argued that the UNC should be stopped from “interfering with inter-Korean affairs.” He argued that the UN never funded the UNC and they are simply the same as U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea but dressed in different uniforms.
The UNC was established through a UN Security Council resolution in July 1950 following the outbreak of the Korean War. Under the resolution, 22 UN member countries sent troops, military equipment, and medical professionals. The United States, which had the largest number of soldiers, was given command and the use of the UN flag. After the wartime command was handed over to the U.S. Forces Korea the UNC’s peacetime duties were narrowed to watching over the border area and other roles stated in the Armistice Agreement.
Soon after Song was appointed head of the foreign affairs and unification committee in June 2020, North Korea demolished the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong. At that time, he said that “at least they did not shell the building.”
The North Korean demolition occurred just a few days after Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean dicator’s sister, made threatening remarks that labeled defectors in South Korea “human scum” and “mongrel dogs” for sending items across the border. Song introduced the anti-leaflet bill soon after this incident.
