rekindled factional strifes in DLP

The recent events, starting from the North Korean nuclear test and continuing to the recent allegations of the participation of some recently or formerly highly placed Democratic Labor Party functionaries in illegal information gathering (read: spying) for the benefit of North Korea, have deepened the gap between the two main factions in the party, the "National Liberation" (NL) faction and "People's Democracy" (PD) faction. The former, forming the majority in the DLP high committee, for example prevented any formal condemnation of the nuclear test, and allowed only the expression of "regret" in the statement of the party. In the process, tensions were boiling high, and some members of the minority faction stormed out of the committee meeting, using even rather strong language such as kaesaekki. Now the spy allegations have created strife also between the social democratic circles active within DLP (represented by "Autonomy and Solidarity for Social Democracy" and the marxist All Together, appearing in the DLP members' bulletin board. (Not that there had been much chance for constructive cooperation between the two, even though these movements are not really associated with either of the two main DLP factions, and they are not basically divided over the stand towards DPRK, as "NL" and "PD" factions are.) Autonomy and Solidarity published a statement which acknowledged that the authorities (NIS) are not all wrong in investigating the case and demanded that the party cease talking about "oppression by authorities." To this, All Together (which, as I said, in its unconditionally critical stand towards the DPRK government is basically different from the "NL" faction) responded by asking that "are we supposed to surrender to the witch hunt?". The pen name Hyônminokch'a, a member of the executive of "Autonomy and Solidarity," responded by giving a rather nasty description of All Together as playing to the sensibilities of the "NL" faction. It didn't take long for All Together to respond again, showing how insurmountable the divide between the two groups after all is. An interesting piece of info from the latest All Together comment is that one of the Autonomy and Solidarity activists is operating operated a blog, in blog.chosun.com of all places, called T'ado chusap'a ("down with jucheists"). This sounds like the Finnish social democrats' relentless anticommunism from the late 1940s to early 1960s! Väinö Tanner, the biggest noske of them all. This is his speech (ram) as a foreign minister on December 3, 1939 broadcasted by NBC in the United States. Another interesting thing - the reason why I started to write this note in the first place - was that All Together compares Autonomy and Solidarity to Gustav Noske, the early 20th century German social democrat and the minister of the interior who gained notoriety in putting down the uprising of the Spartakist League in 1919. Here in Finland, "Noske" (or noskelainen) used to be a slur used by communists for social democrats. For reference, a table of the two main DLP factions compiled by Daily NK; note the conservative and anti-DPRK leanings of the newssite when reading the table.   자주파 (NL. 민족해방) 계열 평등파 (PD. 민중민주) 계열 대표 이론 주체사상 사회민주주의, 사회주의 기반 단체 민노총 일부, 민노당 일부, 전국연합(한총련, 전농 등) 민노총 일부, 민노당 일부 당면 과제 6.15연대 강화, 주한미군 철수,국보법 철폐 신자유주의 반대, FTA반대,  평화군축 당내 지분 최고위원 11명 중 8명 정책연구소 중심 Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Koreanpolitics ∙ DPRK ∙ minjok