hankyoreh

commissioner general of the National Police Agency

It has been confirmed that police are investigating a number of civilians and public officials who visited North Korea for humanitarian purposes during the Roh Moo-hyun administration after being granted official permission. In December 2009, prosecutors investigated four city council members in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on charges of making a silent prayer in front of a statue of Kim Il-sung. However, this marks the first time civilians and public officials have been investigated after visiting North Korea for humanitarian reasons.

The Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency’s security division announced Tuesday that it was investigating 27 members of an Ulsan delegation that visited North Korea from March 16 to 20, 2007, to attend the completion ceremony for a noodle plant in Pyongyang’s Moranbong District. The individuals in question are being investigated for possible violation of positive law, including the National Security Act and Inter-Korean Exchanges and Cooperation Act, the security division said.

Police stated that since last month, they have been issuing summonses to and investigating people who visited North Korea during the Roh administration. It was confirmed that the individuals targeted for investigation include conservative-leaning regional figures such as the regional council head for the National Unification Advisory Council, the local Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation) head, and the local Friendship Association head, as well as two public officials with the city of Ulsan who helped with some of the purchasing costs for machinery at the noodle plant.

Those questioned said the police are investigating them to determine if they visited the statues of Kim Il-sung at Pyongyang’s Mansudae and in front of Juche Tower, whether they made pro-North Korea statements at a dinner with North Korea’s Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, whether they had any separate meetings with North Koreans outside of their official schedule, and what they wrote in the visitors’ register while visiting Kim Il-sung’s birth home.

“Not only are most of the people who have been questioned conservative in their ideas, but they visited North Korea with official permission from the government,” said a visitor to North Korea who asked to remain anonymous. “I have no idea why they are questioning us belatedly about something that happened three years ago.”

“I have to question whether the police did not try to create a public security incident in order to help the government and ruling party in the local elections,” the visitor added.

Kim Jong-hun, head of the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation office at the Ulsan headquarters of Our Nation Becoming One, said, “When South Korean civilians visit Pyongyang, not only are they asked to visit sites associated with Kim Il-sung, but this kind of itinerary is very often added on site at North Korean request, so if this kind of thing is seen as an issue, then the majority of civilians who visited North Korea during the Roh administration will have to be punished.”

“If a visitor to North Korea deliberately visited one of these sites rather than being simply asked to do so, then it is in violation of the Inter-Korean Exchanges and Cooperation Act,” said an official with the Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency security division. “We are investigating based on evidence obtained some time ago, and we actually slowed down the investigation to avoid any misunderstanding that we were carrying it out with an eye to the local elections,” the official added.

In 2005, the city of Ulsan, the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education and the Ulsan headquarters of Our Nation Becoming One raised 200 million Won ($164 thousand), including 100 million Won in citizen donations and 100 million won from the city, to purchase and donate noodle-making machinery for North Korea in order to aid the country as it suffered difficulties due to a food shortage. North Korea built the noodle plant on a 200 square meter site in Pyongyang’s Moranbong District and invited civilians and public officials from Ulsan as a gesture of appreciation.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]