hankyoreh

May 11

In 2014, during the presidency of Park Geun-hye, the Blue House targeted MissyUSA (the largest online community for Korean women in North America) as being “linked to North Korea” and ordered that the press be encouraged to bring public attention to this information, new documents show. But articles in conservative-leaning media based on the Blue House’s claims of a link between MissyUSA and North Korea were found to be groundless by a court last year.

On Oct. 22, the Hankyoreh acquired documents from the meetings of senior secretaries at the Blue House chaired by then presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon. “Some of the members of MissyUSA and other anti-government organizations in North America held a demonstration in front of the consulate in Los Angeles to commemorate the Sewol accident and to criticize the government to coincide with the VIP’s visit to the US. There was a reporter from cybersecurity publication Blue Today who claims that North Korean operative Roh Kil-nam made an appearance at the demonstration,” Kim is quoted as saying in a document from a meeting that took place on Sept. 22, 2014.

“We need to ensure that the domestic press reports that anti-government forces in North America are connected to North Korea and that this illustrates the truth about MissyUSA, which claims to be a group of ordinary housewives,” Kim was recorded as saying, giving instructions to Senior Secretary for Public Relations Yun Du-hyeon.

Korean Americans' demonstration and march organized by MissyUSA in front of CNN headquarters in Atlanta

After members of MissyUSA carried out demonstrations criticizing the government in connection with the Sewol accident, Blue Today, the website mentioned by Kim, ran seven reports in Sept. and Oct. 2014 claiming that MissyUSA is pro-North Korean. But in a defamation lawsuit that Linda Lee, a member of MissyUSA, filed against Blue Today, the Seoul Western District Court found in Aug. 2016 that “it is difficult to find concrete evidence demonstrating that the organization to which the plaintiff belongs has a pro-North Korean leaning.”

There are also parts of the documents that suggest that Kim’s instructions to encourage the press to report on the truth about MissyUSA were partially carried out. The next month, Kim gave these instructions yet again during a meeting of senior secretaries that was held on Oct. 19: “MissyUSA is ostensibly an online shopping mall, but in reality it has been infiltrated by tainted pro-North Korean figures who are organizing anti-government demonstrations. On Oct. 17, Chosun.com printed an exposé by Lee Ae-ran, and we need to tell other media outlets the truth about this group so that they can accurately report on this.” The exposé by Lee, a prominent North Korean defector activist with a doctorate, claimed that North Korean sympathizers in North America were behind MissyUSA.

Kim’s remarks from this time show that the Blue House was very actively involved in oppressing organizations and figures critical to the government by branding them as North Korean sympathizers. The Blue House’s response was apparently triggered by the fact that MissyUSA had taken out an advertisement in the New York Times criticizing Park’s behavior at the time of the Sewol accident. “Certain Korean-Americans have tarnished the reputation of the Republic of Korea by running an advertisement that criticizes the South Korean government. We must respond to this angrily and vigorously, and in particular we must ensure that these falsehoods are corrected,” emphasized a document from a meeting of Blue House senior secretaries that was held on May 12, 2014, after the advertisement appeared.

Furthermore, the Saenuri Party (the precursor to the Liberty Korea Party), the Korea Freedom Federation and the Korea Veterans Association were given orders to take action by means of op-eds, statements and advertisements countering the advertisement’s “falsehoods and exaggerations.” At the time, Hwang Woo-yea, floor leader of the Saenuri Party, said during a meeting of the party’s supreme council that “there are political forces who are resorting to demagoguery even at such a grave time,” while the Korea Freedom Federation and the Civic Movement for National Unification released statements criticizing MissyUSA for its “nationally divisive politics.”

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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