This week, South
Korean prosecutors indicted a social media and freedom-of-speech activist for
reposting messages from the “enemy’s” (North Korean) government’s Twitter
account. Park Jung-geun, a 23 year old photographer who specializes in taking
pictures of babies, was taken in custody last month on charges of violating
South Korea’s controversial National Security Law. This law bans “acts that
benefit the enemy” but does not clearly define what constitutes such acts. The
Twitter account, Uriminzokkiri.com, Mr. Park was accused of
reposting is run by the North Korean government Web site, which South Korean
news media regularly cite for their reports. Park was indicted on Tuesday.
Detectives raided Mr.
Park’s photo studio in eastern Seoul in the fall. They later interrogated him
several times for resending such North Korean propaganda postings as “Long Live
Kim Jong-il!” the longtime North Korean dictator that died December 17. In his
Twitter postings, Mr. Park compared himself to “The Young General,” the North
Korean term for Kim Jong-un, the third son of Kim Jong-il. He posted this to
simply because he inherited his photo studio from his father as Kim Jong-un
inherited the dynasty from his father. He also posted Web links to North Korean
propaganda songs. In a North Korean poster that he altered and uploaded on
Twitter, he replaced a North Korean soldier’s face with a depressed version of
his own and the soldier’s rifle with a bottle of whisky.
Mr. Park, a member of
the Korean Socialist Party, said he supported its platform, which criticized
the Pyongyang government’s human rights policy and its hereditary transfer of
power. In an interview in December, Mr. Park said his Twitter posts were meant
to ridicule the North Korean regime. Mr. Park could face up to seven years in
jail if convicted. This law should definitely be repealed or revise because
something like this should not be seen as a crime but as a form of expression
which every person should be entitled to have.
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