Ruling party slams main opposition’s delay in anti-spy law revision

The ruling People Power Party on Tuesday denounced the main opposition’s delay in passing the revision to the country’s espionage law, which aims to broaden the scope of activities that are punishable.

The revision to Article 98 of the Criminal Act, floated by the ruling party earlier this year, seeks to change the wording of the legislation defining subjects punishable by law, from “a person who acts as a spy for an enemy country” to those from “a foreign nation.”

The ruling party has claimed that the “outdated” wording has limited the subjects to North Korean spies, citing past cases where a court failed to convict a defendant guilty of espionage charges, despite strong evidence.

“The (main opposition) Democratic Party of Korea has recently adopted a negative stance toward the forwarding of the revision of the Criminal Act that would expand the scope of the Espionage Act from the current ‘enemy country’ to ‘foreign nation,’” People Power Party Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho said during an intra-party strategy meeting.

“I heard that a Democratic Party lawmaker said during a sub-committee meeting of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee that (spy agents are a thing of the past) and opposed the move to widen the scope of the espionage law. This shows that the Democratic Party is still trapped in the mindset of (the pro-democracy and anti-government) activists of the '80s,” he added.

The revision bill, which is pending in the Assembly's Legislative and Judiciary committee, was one of the pieces of legislation that the two main parties agreed to pass. Observers had projected the opposition-led parliament to pass the bill by the end of last month, but the bill has yet to be presented at the Assembly plenary session to be put to vote.

The previous day, People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon also expressed concerns on Facebook about the Democratic Party’s delay.

“Is the Democratic Party going backward on the espionage law? Has it decided to throw a tantrum over the law after (abusing its power) over (the 2025 budget plan),” he wrote.

Democratic Party spokesperson Noh Jong-myeon told reporters in the morning that the party is "not against" the revision, but has been carrying out a "sufficient review" of it.

"We are not against the move to expand the scope of the bill to 'foreign nations,' but rather concerned about the possibility of it being abused," Noh said.

Critics have pointed out the need to update the country’s Espionage Act, with the law currently focused on people suspected of carrying pro-North Korea activities. But liberals have taken cautious steps on revising the legislation, as it was often used as a tool of political repression by the military regimes here throughout the '70s and the '80s.