“S. Korean Soldiers of the Naval Clash in West Sea Are Devils”

Articles which have been posted on web sites referring S. Korea soldiers involved in the skirmish in the West Sea to ‘devils’ are giving rising to public criticism.

The problematical article was posted on the website of the ‘Main Office in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea’ Monday under the title of “You naval devils who slaughtered powerless brethren of the North”. Since then, about related 20 articles have been posted on various portal sites, and adverse criticism has also markedly surfaced and about 10 reply messages have been written daily by netizens.

The article, in particular, were copied and posted on small discussion rooms of various portal sites by netizens, and netizens have even been posting reply messages condemning particular schools one after another.

The article which are now posted on portal sites claims that it was written by the Students Association for Unification of ‘AXXX’ Women`s University similar to the Student Guild of ‘AXXX’ Women`s University but the Student Guild of ‘AXXX’ Women`s University denied the claim and requested investigation to the ‘Main Office in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea’.

“How could you want to be treated as national heroes after slaughtering powerless brethren by causing North to put a fight by claiming the Northern Limit Line (NLL) which does not even exists in the international law,” the article claimed. “Who are you guys really are? You are nothing but Devils who claims the border line (NLL) as you please, and killed brethren for crossing it,” the article criticized.

The person who posted the article initially on the website of the ‘Main Office in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea’ has ‘Chamsoori 276’ and is a member of an Internet community site of the portal site Daum. He said that he served in the Navy and works for a big insurance company. He also said that he has been voluntarily been putting efforts in the memory of dead affectionately as he has acquaintance of having trained together with sergent Cho Chon-hyung, deceased last year during the West Sea naval clash.

He said his personal homepage, http://myhome.hanmir.com/pkm359 was hacked last Monday morning, and was terrified seeing his controversial article under the name of Student Guild of ‘AXXX’ Women`s University. He claimed that he immediately reported the incident to the website of the ‘Main Office in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea’.

His personal homepage was closed after hacking by the according portal site which maintains the server.

Netizens have been writing countless articles in protest or with heavy criticism on a community site of the Daum made in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea. AXXX Women`s University and its Student Guild have also been the subjects of the heavy criticism.

In the meantime, some netizens are suggesting possibility of “cyber terrorism” and demanding to “show the captured images of the hacked site,” while others are saying, “Let us be cautious in case some innocent people gets mistakenly blamed for.”

AXXX Women`s University`s General Student Association put their statement on the university website yesterday saying, “We are not the one who wrote or posted the article. Someone falsely assumed our name.” “We urge ‘Main Office in Honor of the Dead in the West Sea’ to inquire investigation to the Cyber Police in order to solve and punish the one who is responsible for this case.”

Meanwhile, “If the person whose site was hacked or AXXX Women`s University file a lawsuit for libel, investigation will be immediately taken place,” the Seoul Cyber Police said.

jaykim@donga.com