South Korean police have found about 200 lapel pins bearing the image of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il strewn near the country’s main worldwide airport. All are known to have defected to South Korea but Seoul’s Foreign Ministry has refused to offer its confirmation, saying the issue of North Korean defectors is something that can not be made public, not only for their safety, but also to avoid diplomatic tensions.
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Mr Han said North Korea believes the manoeuvres have become openly aggressive because they reportedly now include training created to prepare troops for the invasion of the North’s capital and “decapitation strikes” aimed at killing its leadership.
Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011, was the son of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, and the father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim and 10 others were put on the list of sanctioned individuals in connection with alleged human rights abuses, documented by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, including a network of political prisons and harsh treatment of any kind of political dissent in the authoritarian state. Some ordinary citizens buy that pin at unauthorized street markets, according to defectors and activists in Seoul.
On Thursday morning, South Korean police officers went to the area after a citizen reported what appeared to be anti-South leaflets there.
Mere possession of the pins, which are mandatory accessories for all adults in North Korea, wouldn’t be considered a crime in the South; however, distribution of propaganda items would violate South Korea’s National Security Law, the officer said.
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The rivals are divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
