Tag: National Security Law

Dr. Tara O has an article posted about the April Fool’s Day posters that were put up on college campus around South Korea lampooning people to overthrow the Moon administration on behalf of Kim Jong-un. The posters were put up by the Jeondaehyeop organization that many members of the Moon administration were once part of:

Satire posters criticizing the Moon Jae-in administration popped up all over South Korean university campuses to coincide with April Fools’ Day. The heading on the posters stated “Letter to South Korean students” and “Let’s overthrow the South Korean system” with  Kim Jong-un and Jeondaehyeop (전대협) listed at the bottom. The group claimed they posted in about 450 universities nationwide.

There are two Jeondaehyeop organizations.  The older Jeondaehyeop, also known as the National Council of Student Representatives, was a university student organization formed in 1987.  It was controlled by the “NL” (National Liberation) faction. This group, whose members are now in their 50s and many of whom are in the Moon administration and the ruling party, worshipped Kim Il Sung and looked to North Korea to usher in socialism/communism in South Korea and to unify the Korean Peninsula. They saw the U.S. as an obstacle to this goal, thus were (and still are) active in anti-U.S. activities

Im Jong-seok (임종석), President Moon Jae-in’s former Chief of Staff, was the third president of Jeondaehyeop and led many prominent pro-North Korea activities, including arranging for another student Lim Su-kyung’s (임수경) illegal visit to North Korea in 1989.  When Im was called a communist, he sued another citizen for libel. The fourth president of Jeondahyup Song Kap-seok (송갑석) said “North Korea is the only legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula, which guarantees justice and sovereignty, and only the unification by North Korea is the genuine motherland unification” (3:09).  Song is now a national assemblyman, Deoburreo Minjoo Party. Song was also the  Deputy Chief Administrator of Moon Jae-in’s presidential campaign and the Chairman of the Gwangju Regional Committee of the Rho Moo-hyun Foundation.

East Asia Research Center

You can read much more at the link, to include the full English translation of the poster. Something I did not realize is that the Jeondaehyeop organization which was once pro-North Korean is now an anti-North Korean student group.

Besides the group changing its political leanings, what is so ironic about this is that the Moon administration is investigating Jeondaehyeop under the National Security Law, when they have allowed openly pro-North Korean rallies in the middle of Seoul.

When you read the English translation of the poster it is pretty clear why the Moon administration is hitting back at this group hard because much of what is said in the poster may resonate with many Koreans.

This incident makes me wonder if there was some poor translation done by somebody within the South Korean governmental bureaucracy that makes these decisions because I don’t see how the blog North Korea Tech violates the country’s National Security Law?:

A British journalist who runs a website that documents North Korean technology issues said Tuesday that he’ll appeal a decision by South Korean authorities to block his site for allegedly violating the country’s National Security Law.

Martyn Williams, whose North Korea Tech website has been blocked for almost two weeks, said the site does not violate the security law, which bans praising, sympathizing or cooperating with North Korea. The website “doesn’t seek to glorify or support North Korea,” he said in an email.

Williams, who is based in San Francisco, has written about issues ranging from cellphone usage in North Korea and its satellite technology, to a little-known computer operating system developed by North Koreans. He said much of the content on his website is based on announcements made by the North and South Korean governments and reports in the media.

The South’s Korea Communications Standards Commission confirmed Tuesday that it decided on March 24 to block the site because it allegedly violated the security law. The censorship body blocks websites deemed illegal or harmful to society, such as pornography, gambling and North Korea’s official outlets.  [Associated Press via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

Happy Birthday to South Korea's National Security Law, introduced 67 years ago today. (Related story: https://t.co/LZRc5M8t6I)

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) November 20, 2015

It looks like the US embassy had some useful idiots stop by recently.  If they are so concerned about toxins in South Korea how come they are not busy protesting the companies that deliberately dumped 3000 tons of dangerous chemicals into the Han River for people to drink instead of anthrax spores mistakenly sent to South Korea that infected nobody?:

South Korean police said Saturday that two people were arrested for carrying out an illegal protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.

“A man and a woman were arrested after they displayed banners and leaflets calling for ousting U.S. troops from the country,” authorities said. “The protest was never authorized, so they broke the law.”

Police said the two lashed out at U.S. troops for bringing in live anthrax spores into the country earlier in the year. They said both were members of the Corean Alliance, a local civic group, whose headquarters was raided by authorities Wednesday.

The raid was carried out because the group was accused of promoting North Korean ideologies in breach of the anti-North Korea law.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if the US State Department gets involved in this since this pro-North Korean stooge is a US citizen:

A Korean-American woman has been temporarily banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into her alleged pro-North Korean remarks during a series of talk shows, police said Thursday.

The move comes after local conservative civic groups filed a complaint against Shin Eun-mi, 53, and Hwang Sun, the former deputy spokeswoman of the now-defunct Democratic Labor Party, with the police.

During the talk shows where guests and the audience exchange views on a specific subject, the two women, as guests, allegedly made remarks sympathetic toward the communist regime and painted the North Korean regime in a positive light.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency probing the case said it banned Shin from leaving the country for 10 days as she had disobeyed an order to appear for questioning.

Shin, who has published a book on her trip to North Korea, had reportedly planned to leave South Korea on Friday.

Earlier in the day, police also raided Hwang’s home and the office of a talk show organizer as part of their investigation.

Hwang is known for having given birth to a baby girl during a sightseeing trip to North Korea in 2005.

Police have reportedly been investigating the duo on suspicion of violating South Korea’s draconian National Security Law that bans any “anti-state” activities that attempt to praise, encourage or propagandize North Korean political ideals.  [Yonhap]

For those that don’t know the Democratic Labor Party was the political party in South Korea that was filled with a number of people who ended up being convicted for spying for North Korea.