525 Pro-North Korea Messages Found Posted Online

It was revealed that after last August, when the police asked the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to delete 1,660 pro-Kim Jong Il messages on civic group websites, 525 more messages were further posted.

According to materials that Lee Sang-bae, member of the Grand National Party and Government Administration and Home Affairs Committee member, obtained from the National Police Agency yesterday, after August 1, when the police informed the MIC of the source of pro-north Korea websites, 525 more pro-North Korea messages (340 posted last month, and 185 posted in September as of September 18), were found.

Many of these additional messages praise North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his military-first policies. The police also asked the MIC to order their deletion.

This year, three were arrested for violations of the National Security Law in relation with posting pro-Kim Jong Il message online, which is the highest level over the last five years.

Meanwhile, of the 13 civic groups that were ordered by the MIC to delete messages by midnight on August 28, 10 groups refused the order. They were the Solidarity for Practice of the South-North Joint Declaration, the Democratic Labor Party, the National Union for Democratic National Unification, National Union of Street Vendors, National League of Farmers, National Solidarity of Minjung, South Korea Headquarter of Youth Students Union for National Unification, Load to Learning, The Headquarters of the Movement for the Withdrawal of U.S. Forces Stationed in South Korea, and the Union of Students’ Associations of Korea Universities.

These 10 civic groups presented information to the press yesterday and said that, “The MIC decided to punish us without a judicial rationale, which is against the constitution, and it is censorship and a violation of the constitution when an investigation agency arbitrarily orders the deletion of information in the Internet.” They also said that, “We are going to file a suit through the Constitutional Court.

On the other hand, the MIC is going to check their websites from today again and accuse these groups of not deleting messages if it was confirmed that they didn’t follow the order.

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