An article idolizing Kim Jong Eun written by an abductee has appeared on Uriminzokkiri, a propaganda website managed by the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.
The article, by former Cheondoist leader in South Korea and Vice-Chairman of the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland Oh Ik Jeh, who was abducted by North Korea in 1997, was posted at the top of the website on November 8th under the title, “We Saw the Bright Future of the Nation.” In it, he claims to justify the Kim Jong Eun succession.
Reviewing Kim Jong Eun’s appearance at the military parade on the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party founding on October 10th, Oh asserts, “It seems that I saw again the noble image of the historical patriot General Kim Il Sung, he whose entry into Seoul the South Chosun people had been looking forward to as they set up an arch decorated with pine tree leaves in Seoul City Hall Square.”
“The world has great admiration for the success of the commemorative event for the Party founding,” he adds, going on, “All the sophistry and delusions of the U.S. and its followers, which insist on chaos or an ‘emergency’ and are terrified of panic and horror, came entirely to nothing.”
Of Kim Jong Eun, he continues, “The South Chosun media have been competitively spotlighting his noble image, name and greatness by doing things like covering ‘Footsteps.’ On the Internet, articles carrying wishes to meet him while celebrating the fact that the Youth Captain has taken on a heavy responsibility are constantly being posted.”
Therefore, he concludes, “Since we have comrade Youth Captain, who is revered by the whole of mankind, the sun of reunification is rising over the whole of Korea.”
Oh’s article also appeared on November 5th on a blog, “Knowing Correctly the DPRK,” which is available through Naver, a South Korea portal site. It is presumed that the North Korean authorities delivered the article to South Korean pro-Kim regime organizations and activists in advance, and then released it on Uriminjokkiri.
One defector, a former high official in North Korea, analyzed the article today saying, “It could be the official starting point in an international idolization campaign for Kim Jong Eun. It is a preparatory measure; leaking the news inside North Korea that both foreign brethren and South Korean people support Kim Jong Eun while officially publicizing Kim Jong Eun’s succession to Kim Jong Il regime followers in the South through the site, Uriminjokkiri.”
The case of Oh Ik Jeh is well known in South Korea, but less so abroad. He was abducted by United Front Department agents in Dandong in August, 1997. At the time of his abduction, the North Korean authorities insisted that he was a defector, but Jang Cheol Hyun, a former United Front Department agent who arrived in South Korea in 2004, revealed the inside story of Oh’s abduction when he allowed his testimony to be released by “Shin Donga”, a current affairs magazine published by the same company as the South Korean daily, “Dong-a Ilbo”.
According to Jang, Kim Jong Il personally ordered the United Front Department to kidnap someone from South Korea in response to the defection of Hwang Jang Yop in the same year, so the department, with the help of Chosun Cheondogyo Young Friends Party leader Kim Mee Young, enacted the command. Oh’s home town is Sungcheon in South Pyongan Province, where he had left his parents, wife and children during the Korean War. Therefore, agents approached him with an offer to help him meet his family in North Korea, before fooling him into boarding a train at Dandong Station and taking him to Shinuiju against his will.
In advance of the operation, Kim Jong Il reportedly told espionage organizations that it was a test of their abilities, so the Chief of the United Front Department, Im Dong Ok, and Ahn Kyung Ho, Secretary General of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, allegedly oversaw the operation as field commanders.
Since then, Oh has been issuing propaganda towards South Korea from his position as Vice Chairman of the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.
