Publication on People’s Solidarity Website Claims Korean War was Instigated by South Korea’s Invasion of the North

Following the September 6 posting of “Legends of the Kim Il-sung Family” on the bulletin board of the National People’s Solidarity website, it was confirmed on Thursday that the same bulletin board has been continually posting such North Korean publications as “The Writing’s of Kim Il-sung” and “The Memoirs of Kim Il-sung” since last September.

On the evening of September 8, the bulletin board featured North Korean publications “The Joseon War as Seen by History” and “History’s Indictment,” as well as four anti-American reference books, including the “Anti-MacArthur White Paper,” which contains data compiled by the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party.

In particular, “The Joseon War as Seen by History” defines the Korean War as “the war instigated when the U.S., whose intention was to make Korea an advance post of anti-communism and to resolve the economic crisis through war, and the Lee Seung-man administration, whose purpose was to overcome political confusion and crisis, colluded in an invasion of North Korea.”

This indicates that the government, including the police, has failed to monitor an opposition group’s repeated display, over a long period of time, of material that is clearly pro-North on its website. Such negligence is sure to invite the criticism that the government has failed to perform its proper function as a public power.

In response, a security official with the police stated, “When pro-North content is found on the internet, the police immediately embarks on an investigation, and either requests the website operator to delete the relevant material or solicits the Research Institute on Issues of Public Security to verify the material’s pro-North nature and follows it up with an indictment by the Ministry of Information and Communication. If the parties in question fail to comply with these measures, there’s nothing further that the police can do.”

However, questions still remain on how such key pro-North publications as “The Writings of Kim Il-sung” could have gone unnoticed for so long when the general police, the various regional police headquarters, and the main headquarters are all constantly monitoring opposition groups’ websites for pro-North content.

Some netizens are speculating that the repeated posting of pro-North material on the bulletin board might be an attempt to test the government’s willingness to carry out the law at a juncture when the abrogation or preservation of the National Security Law is becoming a prominent issue.

Others are suggesting that those opposing the abolition of the National Security Law are purposely distributing such material in order to put a brake on the abrogation movement by provoking adverse public opinion.

The People’s Solidarity announced that it acknowledges the problematic nature of the North Korean publications, but that it will allow them to remain on the bulletin board as long as such postings are not advertisements or spam mail, since the bulletin board is a free space for netizens to use at their discretion.

Se-Jin Jung mint4a@donga.com