Seoul arrests man using Twitter to support North Korea

[unreal.livejournal.com]

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the South Korean authorities have arrested and filed charges against a man for posting Twitter and other internet messages praising North Korea.

The 54-year-old South Korean man, identified only as Cho, is said by the South Korean government-affiliated Yonhap news agency to have posted 100 messages and video clips in support of the regime in Pyongyang.

Mr Cho's alleged offences took place between 2009 and October last year and involve content on his own blog, Twitter and other websites.


Postings said the sinking in March of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors and was widely blamed on North Korea, was faked by South Korea and the United States. Messages also blamed South Korea for provoking the shelling in November of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea, in which two marines and two civilians died.

Mr Cho, who had 3,000 followers on Twitter, is said to have posted material from the official North Korean Uriminzokkiri website. He also praised the likely transfer of power from the current leader, Kim Jong-il, to his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un.

Activity such as this, which falls foul of South Korea's national security law banning activities or the publication of material supporting Pyongyang, is viewed as "subversion", said Alan Chong, an associate professor in the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Under the previous government, which promoted a "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea, similar offences might have been dealt with by a "stern warning", suggested Mr Chong.

However, under the current conservative administration of the president, Lee Myung-bak, despite there being "a very vibrant opposition", pro-Pyongyang material "cannot be tolerated", said Mr Chong, especially following the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents.

"Those voices who might take a more left-wing view - 'Let's be nice to them, hopefully they will be nice to us' - this has become politically risky in the current climate," he added.

Charges were pressed against Mr Cho on Monday, two days after a separate incident in which North Korea's official Twitter account was hacked.

Messages posted on Saturday, Kim Jong-un's birthday, did not contain the usual praise for the country's leaders, but instead accused them of living comfortable lives and said they should be killed "with a sword", Yonhap reported. The official YouTube account was also reportedly hacked.

Pyongyang set up Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts in August last year, apparently to attract international support, since internet access within North Korea is heavily restricted. About 1,300 messages have been posted on the North Korean government Twitter account – @uriminzok – which has more than 10,000 followers.

Source: thenational

Comments

[lee-chikin.livejournal.com]

I'm weirded out by 1) the fact that Twitter is used with such an aim. I know I shouldn't be really surprised, but it still comes as a shock; 2) the fact that a SK man approved of the NK regime. I don't really believe he is from the South, or at least he must have been highly paid.

[lee-chikin.livejournal.com]

I find hard to believe (and with this I mean "I believe it, but it's horrible that things like this happen, how could they?") about people all over the world too.

I'm not talking about the religious aspects and I don't want to be (too much) polemic, but it is known that people in NK die of hunger because of the government.

[lee-chikin.livejournal.com]

Maybe I grew in a over-protective environnement, but yeah, I still find it hard :/

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Nah, for some people the grass is always greener on the other side even if all reports were against that notion. LOL There are even some Finns that are huge KJI fans (send him gifts, celebrate his birthday, put on NK worker uniform on their holidays etc).

[lee-chikin.livejournal.com]

WHAT? *shakes head lamenting human idiocy*

[lovejae23.livejournal.com]

i didn't know s. korea doesn't have free press?
but i guess it could be the paranoia because of the tense situation.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

While people like this man can 'cause a lot of trouble for a country* unless they are actually encouraging people for terrorism and violence they shouldn't be arrested. Free speech and press have their good and bad sides.


*I can sympathize as there is this crazy Finnish guy who goes around spewing all kind of Russian and Soviet propaganda and tries to get Russian ministers and politicians somehow involved in Finland's own issues, and also goes around in Russia trying to raise some sort of anti-Finnish sentiment. But still as Finland has somewhat free speech and press we don't arrest him.

[gundae.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the whole article but what I know is that if you don't have anything to hide you also don't need to arrest a man for publishing his opinions. it just seems wrong to me.
(and I'm not saying that his opinions are right.)

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

At this point I wonder if they'd consider that kind of thing like a possible marker for terrorism or something considering recent events... if it was like that, then I could understand.

[jonghyunf.livejournal.com]

i honestly think they should've let him said whatever the fuck he wanted

it would prove a point that sk doesn't censor like nk.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised. Any norht korean supoprt = practically terrorism.

anymore than "we want unity(통일)" is considered treason.