3,009 Web Documents Praising North Korea

It was recently revealed that more than 3,000 articles have been posted on the websites of various progressive civil and social organizations, praising Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and their Songun Politics.

According to the data obtained from the National Police Agency, on February 8, by Lee Sang-bae, a Grand National Party representative belonging to the Government Administration and Home Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, there were 3,009 articles posted on the homepages of 12 civil and social organizations as of January 24, that praised North Korea; including some memoirs directly praising Kim Il Sung and his son.

The website of the Solidarity for the Practice of the South-North Joint Declaration displayed most of the documents, a total of 731, which were described by the police as “illegal pro-North articles.” This was followed by the websites of the National Alliance for Democracy ＆ Reunification of Korea (560 articles), the South Korean headquarters of the Pan-national Student’s Association for Unification (359 articles), the National Solidarity of the People and the Korea Youth Movement Council (282 articles each), and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (249 articles).

A source from the police commented, “These articles carry the possibility of violating the National Security Law because they, unlike common pro-North Korean propaganda, transmit the thoughts and accomplishments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and incite revolutionary struggles against South Korea.” It was also revealed that the police have been carrying out secret investigations, noting in particular that the pro-NK articles have been methodically posted on the websites of civil and social groups over the past month.

According to the police, the number of articles praising North Korea and explicitly disapproving South Korean conservative groups and the U.S., posted during December last year and January this year, quadrupled to more than 430 compared to an average of about 100 articles per month. The articles contained information similar to that of North Korea’s New Year editorial, stating that “Forming an anti-Grand National Party front is necessary,” at a time when the presidential election is fast approaching.

Police sources have revealed that most of the pro-North articles were posted by the Salvation Front (Gu-guk-jeon-seon), the website of the Anti-imperialist National Democratic Front (Ban-je-min-jok-min-ju-jeon-seon), which is known as the advance guard for the revolution against South Korea and a subsidiary of the Unification Frond Division (Tong-il-jeon-seon-bu) – a North Korean espionage body against South Korea. The articles included memoirs of Kim Il Sung, entitled ‘With the Century’, and ‘To Leader Kim Jong Il, the Son of the 21st Century’ which praises the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Representative Lee Sang-bae said, “This proves that the hostile ideology of North Korea and its followers has been evolving in cyberspace under the current administration. It is necessary to find and identify the groups that have been designing and controlling these anti-South Korea initiatives through the Internet.”

ditto@donga.com