The Moon Administration’s Connection to the Revolutionary Unification Party, Extends to Even Ki Mo-Ran

2021-4-22, Chosun Ilbo [TRANSLATION]

On August 20, 1968, a North Korean spy ship appeared off the coast of Jeju island.  Their plan was to pick up Kim Jong-tae (김종태) and Lee Moon-gyu / Yi Mun-kyu (이문규) (and others), heads of the TongHyeokDang / TongHyukDang (통혁당, Revolutionary Unification Party)–the underground organization located in South Korea that is under the Workers’ Party of Korea [headquartered] in North Korea.  Twelve North Korean agents were killed after they engaged in an armed fight with the South Korean military.  In the so-called “Tonghyeokdang” case (Revolutionary Unification Party case), the five main criminals, including Kim Jong-tae, were sentenced to death and 158 were arrested.  Kim Jong-tae traveled to North Korea four times and met Kim Il-sung face-to-face and received large sums of money for espionage.  Kim Jong-tae, aiming for an armed uprising and overthrow of the government, recruited academic and cultural figures and students including Shin Young-bok (신영복), Park Seong-joon (박성준), and Ki Se-chun (기세춘).  Shin Young-bok, the General Secretary of the Revolutionary Unification Party, and Park Seong-joon, the leader of a [related] youth organization, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 years in prison, respectively.

Caricatures of Moon Jae-in and Revolutionary Unification Party members

-Shin Young-bok, former professor, was released in 1988 after 20 years in prison, after writing a letter that confessed his conversion of ideology.  Afterwards, however, he said “I never changed my ideology or betrayed my comrades.”  He gave lectures at universities and published books on ideology (Sasang books).  He even made his own calligraphy named Shin Young Bok-che. The Left praised him as a true scholar of the humanities, but others just viewed him as a fanatical devotee of the Juche ideology (KimIlSungism).

-President Moon Jae-in showed his great admiration for Shin Young-bok.  At the reception of the [2018 PyeongChang] Winter Olympics, President Moon said “Shin Young-bok is the thinker I respect the most,” in front of the former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and [former] North Korea’s President [of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly] Kim Yong-Nam.  When Kim Yo-jong visited the Blue House, [Kim and Moon] took commemorative photos in front of Shin Young-bok’s calligraphy “通” (Tong) and a painting of the Korean Peninsula.  Moon said he will achieve “統” (also pronounced “Tong,” means unification) by “通” (“Tong,” means communications).   President Moon also gave a framed copy of Shin Young-bok’s calligraphy “춘풍추상(春風秋霜)” [means “treat others gently like a spring breeze, but deal with oneself strictly”] to people in the presidential secretaries’ offices at the Blue House.  Moon also included Shin Young-bok’s calligraphy in the banner of the presidential election slogan and on the back of the presidential watch.

-Park Seong-joon (박성준), a former professor and the husband of the former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook (한명숙), was Shin Young-bok’s junior at school and served a jail sentence together [in the Revolutionary Unification Party / Tonghyeokdang case].  Former Prime Minister Han was one of the people Park Seong-joon targeted to recruit at the time of the Tonghyeokdang incident.  There has been speculation that Park Seong-joon is the secret mentor of President Moon Jae-in, perhaps because President Moon has been showing special interest in the retrial of the Former Prime Minister Han’s [bribery case].  Ahn Kyung-hwan (안경환), who was a professor at Seoul National University and a candidate for the first Justice Minister in the Moon Jae-In administration, has a close relationship with Shin Young-bok.  Goh Min-jung (고민정), a former Blue House spokesperson, is said to have met President Moon for the first time at Shin Young-bok’s funeral in 2016. [Note:  Goh became a National Assemblywoman in a surprise “landslide” victory of the ruling Democratic Party (Deobureo Minjoo Party) in the April 2020 elections in South Korea.]

-The Tonghyeokdang network is becoming the hot issue once again because of Ki Mo-ran (기모란), who [Moon recently] appointed as the Presidential Secretary for Disease Control and Prevention Affairs [a newly created position] at the Blue House. Her father is Ki Se-Chun (기세춘), who was convicted in the Tonghyeokdang case.  Ki Se-Chun is a descendant of Ki Dae-Seung (기대승), who was a Confucius scholar during the Chosun Dynasty.  In 1997, he [Ki Se-chun] published a book Juche Philosophy Notes on North Korean Juche ideology and Eastern philosophy.  What could have been a reason for appointing Ki Mo-Ran, who said “We are not in a hurry for vaccines,” to the post [of the health czar]?  The exceptionally strong ties to Tonghyeokdang are undeniable throughout the current administration.  

[Note 1:  Ki Mo-ran’s first name “Mo-ran” (모란) is an unusual name in Korea. Some say it may be derived from “Mo-ran-bang / Moranbang” (모란방), North Korea’s music band led by Hyun Song-wol (현송월) (Kim Jong-un’s close associate) that went to South Korea during the Winter Olympics.]

[Note 2:  One of Shin Young-bok’s poetry books is titled Deobureo Forest (더불어 숲).  In 2015, Sohn Hye-won, who was a marketer-turned-disgraced lawmaker, who often borrowed the words used in Shin Yong-bok’s poetry (with his permission), rebranded Moon’s party as the “Deobureo Minjoo Party,” adding “Deobureo” to “Minjoo Party.”  Kim Il-sung’s multi-volume biography that the Moon administration approved for release recently is titled Segiwa Deobureo (With the Century).  “Deobureo” means “with” or “together,” and is not used as routinely as “gatchi,” which also means “with” or “together.”]

Source:  https://www.chosun.com/opinion/manmulsang/2021/04/22/MD4YU27FBFHTJPHSO4D6HXHBXM/