People’s Democracy Party (the ‘Republic of Korea’)
The fascist repression against the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) that was carried out under the Yoon Suk-yeol government is continuing under the Lee Jae-myung government. On June 12, the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’ prosecutors sought arrest warrants for PDP President Han Myung-hee and Secretary General Han Jun-hye on alleged violations of the National Security Act (NSA). During the warrant hearing, prosecutors resorted to anachronistic arguments, branding the PDP’s constitutional platform and lawful political activities as benefiting the “enemy,” namely the DPRK, and therefore constituting “enemy-benefiting acts.” They even mobilized despicable agent provocateur operations surpassing those of the military dictatorship era in an attempt to dissolve the PDP. Filled with absurd allegations and devoid of even the minimum legal rationality, the warrant request was inevitably dismissed. Nevertheless, on June 22, the police committed another act of fascist repression by referring nine PDP members, including the two cadres, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. They were charged under Article 7(3) (forming or joining an anti-government organization) and Article 7(1) (praising, inciting, or propagandizing for such an organization) of the National Security Act—charges that remain virtually unchanged since the era of military dictatorship and are entirely groundless. Relics of a bygone era, the fascist repressive apparatus is wielding the fascist National Security Act—itself a symbol of the past—even in this day and age of the twenty-first century, making a last-ditch, desperate struggle to prolong its survival by sacrificing a constitutional political party.
What does it reveal when the Lee Jae-myung government, which came to power under the slogan of “eliminating the insurrection forces,” continues the persecution of the PDP, which stood at the forefront of the struggle against the insurrection, by repeating the abuses of the Yoon Suk-yeol clique? Throughout history of the ‘ROK,’ every regime—whether openly fascist or self-proclaimed “reformist”—has fundamentally relied on the same fascist state apparatus. Although the signboards changed from one government to another, the National Inteligence Service’s political intervention, civilian surveillance, fabricated “spy” cases, and repression of progressive movements have continued relentlessly without exception. Not a single so-called reformist government has abolished the National Security Act, nor has it succeeded in amending even one of its provisions. While pursuing inter-Korean summits to extend their political lifespan, these governments have left untouched the anti-DPRK National Security Act, exposing their duplicity, opportunism, and deception. The Lee government’s claim to be a “democratic reform government” is nothing more than empty rhetoric so long as the fascistic National Security Act—which completely tramples even the most basic democratic rights and human rights—remains intact.
The National Security Act is the most notorious anti-national and anti-reunification law. It traces its origins to Japanese imperialism’s “Peace Preservation Law,” fabricated to crush the Korean people’s anti-Japanese independence movement, and was established in 1948 under the US military occupation by the pro-US puppet regime. Since its enactment, it has been repeatedly revised for the worse by inheriting the anti-communist legislation of successive military fascist regimes, and has been abused to this day as an infamous fascist law to suppress workers and the people struggling for anti-US independence and democracy. If the Lee Jae-myung government is sincere about the “popular sovereignty” it proclaims, it must, above all, abolish the National Security Act as its highest priority—a law that tramples the freedoms of thought, expression, and association guaranteed by the Constitution while obstructing workers and the people from securing their right to livelihood and building their own political force. The very fact that the National Security Act still remains in force, despite even the UN Human Rights Council having repeatedly called for its abolition on the grounds that it violates international law and infringes human rights, is itself the clearest reflection of the reality of the ‘ROK’ democracy and its greatest disgrace. The mere fact that this Act is being used to brand the lawful political activities and international solidarity of the constitutional party PDP as “enemy-benefiting acts” is enough to make it impossible to deny that it is a quintessential anti-democratic fascist law that must be abolished without delay.
Immediately end the fascist repression of the lawful activities of the constitutional People’s Democracy Party and abolish the fascist National Security Act at once. The National Security Act is not only an instrument for suppressing democratic forces within the ‘ROK,’ but also the legal foundation of its hostile policy toward the DPRK and, together with the US forces stationed in the ‘ROK,’ one of the root causes of the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula. The intensification of the imperialist forces’ war maneuvers and the resurgence of the fascist system that serves imperialism are inseparable. This is precisely why the PDP—which has consistently upheld the banner of anti-imperialism and anti-fascism while taking the lead in the struggle for the withdrawal of US forces and against a war of aggression against the DPRK—has become the primary target of repression by this fascist law and the repressive state apparatus. Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. The more the fascist authorities wield the National Security Act, the sooner its abolition through the people’s uprising will come. The Lee Jae-myung government must not follow in the footsteps of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, which met its end after carrying out fascist repression against the PDP. Through the anti-fascist struggle, our people will abolish the National Security Act and the repressive apparatus, and bring about sooner the realization of a new world of people’s democracy.
July 4, 2026, Istanbul
People’s Democracy Party (PDP)