The governor of Gyeonggi Province and a conservative presidential hopeful, Kim Moon Soo has expressed his suspicion that some core members of the United Progressive Party are members of the Chosun Workers’ Party.

Speaking to correspondents in Tokyo yesterday, Kim asserted, “I think a small number of key figures are affiliated with the North Korean Workers’ Party,” before adding, “The pro-North Korean underground ‘Minhyukdang’ party has already been reconstructed.”

Kim’s doubts stem in particular from concerns about the loyalties of UPP proportional representation lawmaker-elect Lee Seok Gi. As head of the East Gyeonggi Coalition, Lee was a key figure in efforts to reconstruct Minhyukdang following its collapse in the late 1990s after the ideological conversion of Kim Young Hwan, and in March 2003 he was given two years and six months in prison for forming an anti-state group in violation of the National Security Law.

“There is still a considerable faction that goes on riding in mini-submarines to North Korea and back, but our anti-communist section has become so weak,” Kim went on to note, alluding to the method by which core South Korean communists are occasionally taken to North Korea in secret.

“The most extraordinary thing about the extreme left is their ability to conceal themselves,” he added. “Finding exact evidence is no easy task, but I think extreme leftist education is still going on within the United Progressive Party.”

“The UPP core elite will be Workers’ Party members. We clearly need to stop these pro-North Korea Juche ideologists who do not believe in the system of the Republic of Korea,” he concluded.