Online Community Manager: “Presidents Should Be Shot for Their Negligence in Repatriating Our POWs”

One of the managers of “Changsarang,” an online community supporting Lee Hoi-chang, former president of the Grand National Party (GNP), created a stir when he posted an article titled “Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun Should Be Shot” on the Internet.

The person, an advisor of Changsarang who was only identified with his surname Lee and his nickname “Leegogo,” argued in his article posted on August 18 on the bulletin board of the community’s official website that “as the commanders in chief of the Korean Army, they neglected their duty by not conducting the right measure of saving servicemen who became prisoners of war,” asking, “Isn’t it right to execute Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun by shooting them?”

“Commanders in Chief Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun sent all enemy prisoners (63 long-term political prisoners) back to North Korea, and gave everything they could to the North, including five billion dollars of money and millions of tons of food and fertilizer.” claimed Lee. “Even though there were sufficient conditions for repatriation, they did not make any efforts to save our prisoners of war back in North Korea.”

In response, the ruling Uri Party announced in its August 20 comment that it wonders “how the fact that he sent a petition to the government to rescue the Korean Army prisoners of war but has yet to receive an answer becomes the reason for shooting the presidents to death,” calling for “the police’s thorough investigation.”

Lee has been active in Changsarang and started working as its advisor last year. He was reportedly taken into custody in 2003 for manipulating false slander on First Lady Kwon Yang-sook, and was fined for violation of the electoral law and other allegations earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the administrator of Changsarang’s official website deleted the posting in the morning of August 21 as the article became controversial. At 3:00 p.m. of the same day, however, Lee posted another article, titled, “Put me in prison if what I have done constitutes a crime punishable with imprisonment; Shoot me if I have conducted a crime punishable with shooting,” criticizing the comments from the Uri Party.

mindy@donga.com