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Images of North Korean soldiers using images of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak for target practice have once again been broadcast by North Korean state television. This time, North Korea’s recent claim that there is a ‘Statue Demolition Society’ plotting to destroy statues of Kim Il Sung formed the rationale.
On the 23rd at 9:50PM, immediately after the airing of a current affairs program, Chosun Central TV broadcast the footage of soldiers from Yangkang Province firing at the images of President Lee.
The pictures echo similar images that emerged in March, at a time when North Korea spent more than a month pouring vitriol down upon the South Korean regime.
At the time, the reason used to justify the activity was that South Korean troops in Incheon had daubed slogans around the edge of photos of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Eun, an image that later made it into the domestic South Korean media.
The most recent broadcast includes scenes of soldiers breaking bricks with their fists and firing at targets emblazoned with a derogatory play on President Lee’s name (“Rat” Myung Bak).
The broadcast declared, “The heart of every soldier is bursting with rage at the U.S. imperialists and the Lee Myung Bak traitor party for trying to make a mockery of our sacred dignity and destroy statues.”
North Korea appears to have taken the decision to create the ‘statue terror’ plot in order to create the circumstances to allow for the current displays of anger and from there to puruse the elevation of angry rhetoric against the U.S. and South Korea and create domestic solidarity.
