Pro-North Deletions Growing Fast

By Kim Tae Hong

The quantity of pro-North Korea or pro-Kim Jong Il comment being discovered and deleted from domestic South Korean websites is 44 times greater now than it was in 2008, according to new figures from South Korea’s National Police Agency (NPA).

Citing statistics obtained from the NPA, GNP lawmaker Park Dae Hae of the Public Administration and Security Committee of the National Assembly revealed today that the NPA requested that the Korea Communications Commission delete such materials on 1793 occasions in 2008, 14,430 in 2009, 80,449 in 2010, and 41,745 in this year to July.

Many of the requested deletions were quotes from the North Korean media simply pasted as-is onto other sites, for example the National Defense Commission’s declaration that it would launch a ‘total war’ in reply to South Korea’s “rash response” to the Cheonan sinking.

However, the NPA have arrested 154 people on suspicion of activities pertaining to pro-North Korea activities on domestic internet sites in the 3 years and 7 months in question; 16 were detained and 138 were not.

Commenting on the statistics, an official connected to the NPA noted, “It is a fair point that statistics could not be kept as rigorously in the past as they are today, but it is also a fact that in the last 2 to 3 years pro-North Korea online activities have been on the rise, because of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling, for example.”