Shenyang, China — Graffiti denouncing Kim Jong Il has allegedly been found on a wall in Pyongyang, causing the authorities to launch a crackdown to uncover the culprit.
According to one Chinese-Korean trader working between the North Korean capital and Dandong, China, “Graffiti denouncing Kim Jong Il was found on the wall of Pyongyang Railroad College on the 24th; the inspections and regulations are phenomenal. Nobody can come or go from Pyongyang.”
The graffiti apparently stated, “Park Chung Hee and Kim Jong Il are both dictators; Park Chung Hee a dictator who developed his country’s economy, Kim Jong Il a dictator who starved people to death.” One syllable was a man’s head and was written on a red brick wall in white chalk, making it quite striking.
“In order to catch the culprit, regulations and inspections targeting visitors to Pyongyang as well as the city’s citizens went on for three days, until the morning of the 27th,” the source said. “They wouldn’t even sell train tickets, so my schedule got pushed back. One person visiting his son in the military in Pyongyang was not able to get home.”
Pyongyang Railroad College is in Hadang 1-dong in Hyeongjesan-district, a place with no streetlights with the exception of above the college main gate. The neighborhood is also within the scope of the 100,000-home construction project, so buildings in the area have been destroyed and pedestrians are rarely seen. It would have been easier than in some other places to leave graffiti.
According to the trader, the authorities launched the search for the person responsible via a joint investigation team including the National Security Agency and People’s Safety Ministry, specifically targeting students and people from other provinces. They established road blocks on the roads linking Pyongyang Station and West Pyongyang Station, Pyongyang-Pyongsung, Pyongyang-Wonsan and Pyongyang-Kanri, then began questioning all passers’ by.
Reporting the latest, he said, “The investigation unit has now narrowed down the investigation to the Railroad College’s own students, and has blocked the movement of people between provinces in order to stop the spread of rumors. It seems they are dealing with it severely since it happened in Pyongyang not in the provinces.”
Despite the authorities’ efforts to block the spread of the news, people as far away as Pyongsung and even North Hamkyung Province know about it, the source said.
