No North Korean National Flag on Internet

On September 27, 2002, the prosecution announced that it would crack down on posting and distribution of North Korean national flag on the Internet.

One prosecutor confirmed, “Hanging of North Korean national flag is allowed only at 5 places: Busan Asian Games’ Central Committee, headquarters hotel, the press center, the athletes’ village, and the conference room of representatives of participating countries. Other than theses, online or offline, hanging of the North Korean flag is prohibited.”

According to the prosecution, the following acts are also prohibited: posting on an online bulletin board an attachment containing the flag, and distributing the images of the flag via home pages or e-mails.

But under some circumstances, the prosecution may allow the use of the flag or its images. If a photograph or film which records the playing of a North Korean athlete, and in the photo or film the flag is captured together, then the prosecution will consider the photo or film as one that is made for broadcasting purposes, and will not impose punishment on it.

The prosecution says, “If the webmaster of a home page or the writer of a message on it refuses to eliminate the image of the North Korean flag, we will look into the motive and purpose, which might eventually leads to treason charge.”

Under this policy, Busan Asian Games’ Central Committee has not posted the image of the North Korean national flag on the part of its home page where participating countries are introduced. In addition, the prosecution discovered some background photos on a domestic portal site “Daum Communication” containing the flags. Then, it ordered the webmaster to pull off the photos.

Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com