RFA: Leafleter(s) in Hoeryong Got Past Tight Security

Radio Free Asia has published more details about those dissident leaflets that showed up in Hoeryong recently.

According to sources, the leafleting occurred just 150 meters away from the Hoeryong Historic Pavilion, a site in Osanduk-Dong guarded by security agents, where the statue and birth house of Kim Jong Suk, Kim Il Sung’s first wife, are located. Near Osan Elementary School, School Village has the lowest crime rate in Hoeryong city due to round-the-clock patrols and surveillance by law enforcement, security authorities, and workers’ brigades. But despite the heavy security, someone managed to distribute the leaflets undetected by authorities.

In a June 30 telephone interview, a 29-year-old university student at the Hoeryung College of Education who called himself Han Kyung Chul, described the leaflets. “The leaflets were handwritten with thick, probably Chinese-made, color marker pens–not on [letter-sized] paper, but on paper torn out of diaries available at open door markets,” Han said. Han said the leaflets contained slogans such as “Down with Traitor Kim Jong Il!” and “Overthrow Kim Jong Il, Enemy of the People!” About 30 leaflets were scattered around four different places, he said, adding that they were likely hard to collect afterward due to their small size.

As with the similar operation in Chongjin, it apparently took place in a closely guarded central area, near a sensitive political monument. The similar M.O. and timing suggests some possibility of a coordinated operation. Who knows? Might even be the same people.