South Korea indicts man for retweeting North

On Twitter, a South Korean sarcastically retweeted something posted by North Korea's official news agency. Treasonous baby photographer Park Jung-geun, 23, will now pay for his crime. The New York Times' Choe Sang-Hun writes:

[He] was detained last month on charges of violating South Korea’s controversial National Security Law, which bans “acts that benefit the enemy” —North Korea — but does not clearly define what constitutes such acts. The Twitter account Mr. Park was accused of reposting is run by the North Korean government Web site, Uriminzokkiri.com, which South Korean news media regularly cite for their stories.

Shown above is one of Park's shoops lampooning the North, in which he portrays himself as a sad soldier more interested in Johnny Walker than war. Amnesty International says that the charges are really about the South Korean government's return to old dissent-suppressing ways.

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Guest

This is really not a smart thing for the government to do since the guy was clearly being sarcastic about North Korea. The current governing political party is already on the verge of sinking into oblivion due to corruption and their own incompetence. This is like a little red cherry on top of it all.
teapot

This happened 2 months ago as reported by NPR.
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/01/142998183/in-south-korea-old-law-leads-to-new-crackdown

There are some details such as the guys name and age that are reported differently there and I believe those on NPR to be more accurate. Just goes to show how late to the game and irrelevant the NYT has become.
petertrepan

From the NPR article:

In a recent interview with NPR, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak defended the government’s use of the National Security Law, saying it was still necessary. [...] But Lee did acknowledge the differences of opinion, saying with a chuckle, “I recall when I was in college, I would be the one who would call for the abolishment of such laws.”

My takeaway: Politicians suck in exactly the same way all over the world.
User 100

They’re just trying to prepare for re-unification, by becoming a bit more like the North already…
- retepslluerb
  
  Kinda like what happened to Germany, unfortunately not in regard to the stuff the East was better at.
  - petertrepan
    
    You mean your trains don’t run on time? :)
    - retepslluerb
      
      Not anymore, they don’t.
      
      But I was mostly thinking about education and child care.
      - Ipo
        
        Did you enjoy being a Jungpionier?
        I’m surprised to find that you think military-style indoctrination starting in early childhood is preferable to Germany’s current education clusterfuck.
        FDJ is HJ with a communist flavor, no?
      - retepslluerb
        
        This is a false dichotomy. That certain elements of East German education were as unacceptable as building a wall to keep their citizen in bondage, doesn’t mean that other elements were bound to them.
        
        Lots of the stuff that the Eastern states had to give up or were coerced into giving up are in fact still practised by our Western and Northern neighbours, known hell-holes of undemocratic destitution. (That was sarcasm, by the way.)
        
        Right now we are trying to copy this, anyway.
        
        But it would have been a lot easier to implement and adapt if we only had German speaking professionals with some experience in this matter. Oh wait, we DID have them. 20 years ago.
        
        And where are we know? Barely above America in basic education and below nearly anyone who counts when it comes to social fairness in school matters.
Eli

I feel confused now. It was the South or the North we were supposed to call ‘regime’?
KWillets

I’m against the NSL, but I can’t help noting that other countries ban similar speech without much criticism.

In Europe it’s illegal to possess Nazi symbols, even to express opposition to them:

Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries wants to legalize anti-Nazi paraphernalia featuring crossed-out swastikas — a symbol banned in Germany in any form. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2191932,00.html

Promoting racism and xenophobia, both staples of North Korean propaganda, are also banned in Europe.

Hopefully this will be a test case which will lead to change down the road.
- guanto
  
  1. Europe isn’t a country (which means no such Europe-wide law exists) and 2. no, not “in any form.”
  - Wreckrob8
    
    Unless you’re paranoid perhaps and it’s all a German plot for eurodomination.
  - KWillets
    
    On 2 I admit I’m not familiar with the intricacies of these laws.
    
    On 1 I used “Europe” because I didn’t want to list all the countries which have separate but similar laws. This was my main source:
    
    “In addition, the European Union has issued a directive to combat racism and xenophobia, which makes provision for member states criminalising Holocaust denial, with a maximum prison sentence of between one and three years. Also, the Council of Europe’s 2003 Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cyber Crime, concerning the prosecution of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems includes an article entitled Denial, gross minimisation, approval or justification of genocide or crimes against humanity, although this does not have the status of law.”
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial
    
    I’m fully aware that Europe is not a country, even financially.
  - guanto
    
    Well, then say “a select few European countries” (that have suffered at the hands of the Nazis). Also, as per the Wikipedia article you cited, the EU (which isn’t Europe, either) doesn’t mandate that every member country ban the glorification of Nazi insignia (that’s the issue here, you can use swastikas all you like if all you do is document history, even in Germany). Or if you’re Buddhist I guess.
    
    Now, I’m not sure stifling freedom of expression is a good idea but let’s try not to overstate things ;-).
    
    Edit: oh, sorry, was supposed to be a reply to KWillets.
    - KWillets
      
      I suppose it’s a broad statement, like “in the United States, teaching evolution has been banned”. Technically correct, but I was thinking mostly of France and Germany, and Wikipedia lists a bunch of others like Liechtenstein.
    - ChicagoD
      
      “a select few European countries” (that have suffered at the hands of the Nazis).
      That’s right. The only countries that suffered at the hands of the Nazis were the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Ukraine. We’ll leave allies and nominal allies out of the list (I’m looking at you Austria, Italy, Hungary, Finland, Romania, and Bulgaria. And eventually Croatia). Really just a “select few European countries.”
      - guanto
        
        Parsing fail ;-).
        
        I was talking about the couple (about 10) countries that specifically target Holocaust denial and/or possession/publication of Nazi symbols (as opposed to general hate speech legislation). Conditional in parentheses was just an explanatory note. In no way was I trying to say that only those countries “suffered at the hands of the Nazis.” Not sure how one could take my comment that way? I’m not one to trivialize or downplay what happened, considering how some of my relatives lived through (or not, in some cases) Nazi concentration camps.
- retepslluerb
  
  The swastika isn’t banned in any form in Germany, but in certain contexts – you may not use them to glorify and promote Nazism and related ideologies. However, the taboo against using them at all is quite strong .
  
  The case you mention were harassment against punks and the like and got sacked by superior court in accordance with existing law, because the vast majority of citizens recognises them quite easily as what they are: A critique of and statement against Nazis.
  - KWillets
    
    Ironically, Koreans get all sorts of flak overseas for wearing the Buddhist swastika, which is reversed from the Nazi one.
    
    Hopefully this will be resolved like the German case, but it’s not a sure thing.
petertrepan

I love the poster art. Soviets were content to gaze toward the horizon with hammers slung over their shoulders, but North Koreans actually fly.
http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

Obviously there’s a oppresive regime void to be filled.
eviladrian

But I thought they were the “cool” Korea?
Are we at least still ok with West Korea?