Police Probe Pro-North Web Postings

Regarding the articles posted one after another on the websites of pro-North Korean groups praising the Songun Policy (Military First Policy) of North Korea, police are carrying out close investigations based on the view that they were posted by those who worship North Korea to solidify their unity threatened by their recently weakened strength.

Police are also reviewing whether or not the article is a code of conduct targeting the student movement groups that are pro-North Korea, presuming that the articles praising the Songun Policy were drafted and posted in the campuses of universities.

“It is presumed that the articles praising the Songun Policy were posted from public PCs in a number of universities including Yonsei University,” says a police official. “The articles seem to contain the intentions of the pro-North Korea streamers to imply that they are thriving.”

On the websites of pro-North Korea groups such as Tongil Yeondae, articles with similar contents were posted in four days intervals, on July 25, July 29 and August 2 under the names of Seoul Citizens Supporting Songun Policy, University Students’ Association, and the Association of Workers in Seoul.

Among them, the article that is drawing the most attention from police is the one titled “The Most Powerful Policy in the World Songun! We’re Proud of Our Nation.” This article was posted on July 29 under the name of “University Students’ Association.”

“We hope the university students themselves will lead others to free themselves of old fashioned anti-NK conflicts and pro-U.S. and to understand the Songun Policy of North Korea properly to unify the nation.” This sentence concludes the article.

Police officials think that this is not merely as a simple argument but instigation towards specific actions.

“In these articles, such North Korean words as Kang-wi-ryeok (meaning ‘dignified and strong’) were used intentionally, but they don’t seem to have been posted from the North,” said a police official. “It is more likely that the organization that posted this article is a small gathering rather than a well structured association.”

The official added that it is difficult at this point to either admit or deny the possibility that the article was posted following orders from North Korea.

The police, in order to find out whether the article is a creative writing or quoted from documents from North Korea, is reviewing thousands of pieces of documents related to the Songun Policy and comparing them with the article.

zeitung@donga.com