North Korea defector offices raided, funding 'under investigation'

North Korea defector offices raided, funding 'under investigation'

By

Elizabeth Shim

UPI, June 26, 2020 / 8:24 AM

North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, the head of Fighters for a Free North Korea, gets in a car in front of the group's office in Seoul on Friday. Police completed their search and seizure of the office as part of their probe into the group's anti-Pyongyang leafleting campaign. Photo by Yonhap/EPA

June 26 (UPI) -- South Korean police raided the office of a North Korean defector who is under investigation for sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, days after the defector said he distributed material using balloons.

 

Police raided the offices of Fighters For a Free North Korea, led by Park Sang-hak, and Kuen Saem Education Center on Friday for seven hours, ending operations after 5 p.m., local news service Newsis reported.

 

In the warrant for the seizure, Seoul city police included the right to confiscate Park's vehicle and mobile phone, according to the report. The raid comes after Seoul said it would charge Park and others with violating an inter-Korea cooperation law.

 

Following the raid of the offices, a South Korean police source said they are to also "thoroughly investigate the sources of funding" for Park's operations, including donations.

 

RELATED U.N., rights groups call on North Korea to release abductees

Park, who has voiced strong opposition to South Korea's policy of engagement with the North, said Seoul was violating the right to freedom of expression, which is protected under the South Korean Constitution. Seoul moved to curb leafleting after Kim Yo Jong condemned the activists.

 

"This is absurd," Park said during the raid, according to News 1. "While [South Korea] submits to Kim Jong Un and Kim Yo Jong, the right to freedom of expression is being destroyed.

 

"As long as Kim Jong Un's tyranny persists, and the North Korean people continue to die, and as long as there are political prison camps in North Korea, we will continue to send propaganda leaflets to our beloved 20 million compatriots" in the North, said Park, who added he was frisk searched by police.

 

RELATED Lawsuit seeks more about gov't effort to block Bolton's memoir

On Friday police also seized the mobile phone of Park Jung-oh, the brother of Park Sang-hak, and head of Kuen Saem.

 

Earlier in the week North Korea had vowed to retaliate with anti-South leaflets, but the plan to send as many as "12 million flyers" have been canceled following a decision from Kim Jong Un to suspend military action plans.

 

RELATED Helium balloons did not reach North Korea, Seoul says