Leaflets Floated on KWP Anniversary, Despite KPA Warning

Members from the Seoul-based civic Fighters for A Free North Korea fly a grand photo of Hwang Jang-yop by hanging it from balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets and sending them toward North Korea at Imjingak in the South Korean border city of Paju on Oct. 10, 2011, when the communist nation celebrates the 66th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party. Hwang, the architect of North Korea's guiding "juche (self-reliance)" philosophy and a former secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party, died in South Korea just a year ago after defecting to the South in 1997. The balloons contained 200,000 leaflets criticizing the dictatorial Kim Jong-il regime and Kim's power inheritance to his son Jong-un, 1,000 one-dollar notes and 100 radios. North Korean defectors and South Korean civic activists occasionally fly anti-Pyongyang leaflets despite Pyongyang's repeated retaliation threats. (Yonhap)

Defectors from the DPRK and other ROK-based activists floated 200,000 leaflets on Monday, 10 October, on the anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Workers’ Party.  The activists scattering the leaflets also commemorated the one year anniversary of the death of Hwang Chang-yop, one of the most senior DPRK elites who fled to ROK in 1997 where resided until his 2010 death.  The leaflet launch occurred in spite of a warning on Saturday from the KPA’s representative to inter-Korea military talks:

Public at home and abroad affirmatively appreciate the atmosphere of a series of dialogues created with much effort and hope to see the north-south relations improved and national reconciliation and unity attained on this occasion.

The military warmongers and other puppet conservative forces of south Korea, however, are getting frantic with the moves to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK as evidenced by intrusions into the north side’s waters in the West Sea of Korea and the scattering of leaflets over areas along the front, a blatant challenge to the national aspiration and the demand of the times.

In September alone, more than 80 warships of the South Korean navy intruded into the waters of the north side in the sea while anti-communist rightwing conservative organizations scattered a lot of leaflets and undesirable USBs and pamphlets into areas of the north side.

A particular mention should be made of the fact that anti-communist elements under the Federation of the Movement for Freedom in the North unhesitatingly opened to public their plan to scatter anti-DPRK leaflets from the Rimjin Pavilion on the anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The reckless actions of the anti-DPRK confrontation elements to slander the headquarters of our revolution and the socialist system have reached an intolerable phase.

One of the activists scattering leaflets into the DPRK, Park Sang-hak, has been targeted by the country for assassination by poison.  The alleged assassin, a 22-year member of the KPA named An (Ahn) who fled to ROK in 1995, planned to spike Park’s drink or utilize a poison dart.  An was initially recruited during a March 2010 business trip by DPRK officials who asked An to target Kim Tok-hong (who arrived in ROK with Hwang Chang-yop in 1997), but was pater switched to Pak.  JoongAng Ilbo reports:

According to prosecutors, An escaped the North in 1995, and ran a kimchi manufacturing factory in China. The business was not successful and then he worked as an executive of a South Korean company doing trade with North Korea from third countries.

In March 2010, An was in Mongolia researching new business opportunities and met a senior official of the North Korean Embassy there. The two met several times and he was introduced to another North Korean official, supposedly named Kim, at the embassy last November.

Kim worked for the North Korean agency handling spying activities overseas. After he learning that An had defected to the South after 22 years of military service in the North, he asked An to kill Kim Deok-hong, who defected with Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the Workers’ Party of the North, in 1997. Hwang was the highest ranking North Korean to ever defect.

An returned to the South and reported the assassination order to the NIS. He said he would gather more information for the NIS on additional trips to Mongolia.

The NIS warned him that further trips to Mongolia were dangerous, but An returned in March in fear of losing business opportunities. During that trip, An received additional prods from Kim to kill Kim Deok-hong in South Korea.

“If you succeed in assassinating him, we will let your mother, who is currently living in a controlled district [with limited freedoms], to move to Pyongyang and live a comfortable life,” Kim was quoted as saying by An, prosecutors said. “We will also provide much assistance for your businesses.”

An agreed, and returned to the South with the intention of killing Kim Deok-hong. He couldn’t locate him, however, and the target was changed by his handlers in the North to Park Sang-hak.

An tried to lure Park to see him saying that someone from Japan was willing to help Park spread anti-North leaflets and they could discuss it at a Japanese restaurant in Gangnam.

Photo: KBS World

Meanwhile, ROK is rejecting a DPRK request to repatriate two brothers who arrived south on a small boat on 4 October (Tuesday) via the East Sea (Sea of Japan), after the brothers expressed that they wanted to remain in ROK.  It was the second waterborne defection to occur in the last several weeks.  Also, on 4 October, nine DPRK defectors arrived in Seoul, after spending nearly 3 weeks in Japan.

On 13 September a small DPRK fishing boat carrying six adults and three children was found drifting off the coast of the Noto Peninsula.  The leader of the group told Japanese authorities, “We wish to go to South Korea.”  The group’s leader was a member of the KPA who worked as a fisherman.  A report in Sankei Shimbun speculated that they decided to leave the DPRK because of corruption within the KPA-owned fishing companies.  Security organizations in the DPRK increased the amount of money fishermen are required to pay to fish, and their lives became untenable.  The group’s leader said, “We had to pay a huge amount of money to the military and life became more difficult each year.”

KBS World reports that a DPRK migrant currently incarcerated in China, but who holds ROK citizenship, will be released.  Another migrant with dual citizenship was “paroled” and was expected to travel south.  The two dual citizens are part of a group estimated between 20 and 30 migrants who were arrested in late September.  They are under investigation by Chinese authorities and are being held in a facility near Yanbian.  Last week, a ROK national and DPRK defector were arrested near Shenyang and are also being detained.

Han Sang Ryol Delays Return

Han Sang Ryol, an priest and political activist who has been in the DPRK for two months, tours the West Sea Barrage in Namp'o in August, 2010. The DPRK has announced that Han's return to the ROK was posponed until 20 August (Photo: KCNA)

The DPRK has not offered any official word on the squid fishing boat and 7 crew members seized in the East Sea last Sunday (8 August), but the DPRK’s Red Cross has informed its ROK counterpart that Han Sang Ryol has postponed his return to the South by five days.  Han was originally set to leave on 15 August (Sunday), which is also the anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula, but his departure has been delayed by five days.  Han Sang Ryol is a 60-year old priest and political activist from the ROK who traveled to Pyongyang on 12 June through Beijing.  He has spent the last two months in the DPRK as a guest of the state, making numerous public speaking and media appearances, touring the country and posing for many photographs.

A South Korean pastor, who has been on an unauthorized trip to North Korea, has delayed his planned return home until Aug. 20, according to Pyongyang’s state media Saturday.

Rev. Han Sang-ryol had planned to come back to the South via the heavily armed border on Sunday, Liberation Day, which marks Korea’s independence from Japan’s colonial rule. He has been in the North since June 12, reportedly giving speeches denouncing South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

On Saturday, the North’s Red Cross notified its South Korean counterpart that Han will return home on Aug. 20 through the border village of Panmunjom, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency. The KCNA gave no reason why the planned return has been postponed.

The North’s Red Cross “asked the South Korean Red Cross to inform the relevant institution of this so that it may take necessary measures,” the KCNA said.

Officials in Seoul said Han will be arrested as soon as he steps on South Korean soil.

JoongAng Ilbo reports on the legal ramifications once Han returns to his home country.  This report was written prior to the announcement that Han’s return was delayed.

According to the prosecution officials, an arrest warrant for Han has already been issued on the charges of violating the ban on South Koreans visiting North Korea without permission and violating the National Security Law for anti-government remarks he made while in the North.

The Lee administration is “committing anti-reunification and treacherous crimes by cutting off inter-Korean relations,” Han was quoted as saying in Pyongyang, referring to Seoul’s trade sanctions following the sinking of the Cheonan.

North Korea’s Red Cross has sent a letter to its South Korean counterpart requesting safe passage for Han on his return.

Analysts suspect that the North may use Han to exert pressure on Seoul.

North Korea may demand that South Korea not arrest Han in return for releasing the South Korean fishing boat Daeseung 55 and its seven sailors captured last weekend, according to observers.

The North’s notification of Han’s return was received hours after the South sent a message through the Red Cross asking for the immediate return of the Daeseung 55. The North has not yet commented on the vessel’s capture.

A plan by Han to cross through Panmunjom without an agreement by the UN Command is a clear violation of the armistice, said a Unification Ministry official. Han, a co-founder of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement, a pro-unification civic group, entered the North on June 12 through the North Korean embassy in Beijing.

Dong-a Ilbo reports on the political and cultural circumstances that will greet Han’s return.  Like the report above, it was published prior to the announcement that Han’s return was delayed.

To welcome Han’s return, the civic organization and two other groups will hold Sunday morning a prayer meeting for peace on the Korean Peninsula and improvement in inter-Korean relations at the parking lot of Imjingang Station in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

Representatives of the groups told reporters at the United Christian Center in a statement Thursday, “The Rev. Han visited North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations. So his visit shouldn’t be seen as pro-North Korea or praising the North,” adding, “We urge the prosecution to withdraw its plan to prosecute him.”

For their part, conservative groups will hold events blasting Han’s visit near the Unification Bridge in Munsan, Gyeonggi Province. They will stage a performance in which a person playing Han will be bound with a rope and sent back to the North.

A council on restoration of national identity comprising conservative organizations such as the Korea Freedom Federation spoke to reporters Friday at the Korea Press Center. “The government should sternly punish pastor Han for breaking the law and assisting anti-government activities by leftist organizations like the People’s Solidarity for Social Progress.”

Bong Tae-hong, head of the conservative group Right Korea, said, “We cannot sit idly by and watch progressive groups hold welcome rallies for the Rev. Han. We will take counteraction by holding a news conference right next to them.”

The expected clash between conservatives and progressives has put police on high alert. National Police Agency Commissioner General Kang Hee-rak held an emergency meeting Friday to deploy 1,500 police officers to areas near Imjingak Sunday to prevent trouble.