KOREA: Seoul Set to Lift Ban on Some North Korean Web Sites

Government gives in to various groups who question ban's constitutionality; blockage was originally grounded in national security concerns

The Korea Times
Monday, January 10, 2005

By Reuben Staines

The government is discussing lifting a ban on some of the 31 pro-North Korea Web sites blocked last November, relenting to criticism on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone that it infringes on the public's right to freedom of information, officials said Monday.

Representatives from the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Information and Communication and other government agencies held a meeting in the afternoon to discuss which Internet sites should be reopened.

"We haven't made a final decision on which sites should be reopened yet," a Unification Ministry official told The Korea Times, adding that officials of the two ministries will meet again next week to work out the details.

However, he said the Internet sites that do not contain explicit political or ideological content will likely be made available to the public again eventually.

The government ordered Internet service providers on Nov. 15 to bar the 31 pro-Pyongyang sites, most of which are based abroad. It cited the anti-communist National Security Law as allowing the government to restrict materials that could encourage North Korea sympathizers in the South.

The rethink comes after a North Korean journalists' association chastised Seoul for violating South Koreans' constitutional rights by blocking access to the sites. In a commentary carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency late last year, the association argued blocked sites such as uriminzokkiri.com, a Pyongyang-run news portal, simply aimed to give South Koreans a balanced picture of the communist North. It said blocking the sites was a setback in inter-Korean relations.

Criticism also came from activists and lawmakers in Seoul. Progressive scholars argued the ban went against plans by the ruling Uri Party to scrap or revise the controversial security law.

Even members of the opposition Grand National Party, which usually takes a conservative approach to inter-Korean engagement, questioned the need to block access to sites that offered information on North Korean culture or export goods.

The government has also struggled to enforce the restrictions, with a number of the sites sidestepping the ban by creating mirror sites that can be accessed in South Korea.

Information ministry officials admitted difficulties in monitoring the ban after media reports noted that a supposedly blocked site offering distance learning through Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung University popped up at a new address in late November.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young first signaled that some of the sites would be made accessible again in an interview with MBC radio on Jan. 4.

Date Posted: 1/10/2005