[Meanwhile] Special protection for North Koreans
JEON ICK-JINThe author is a national news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.
Sixty-five-year-old Lee Min-bok is the head of the team sending balloons filled with propaganda leaflets to North Korea to help North Korean residents. These days, his nights are restless. Around 1:20 a.m. on Nov. 12, his five-ton truck parked in his yard in the northern border of Gyeonggi caught on fire. He presumes it was arson.
A North Korean defector himself, Lee has been under close police protection 24/7 since he began to send balloons in 2008. He complained that he was frustrated and anxious that no suspect has been identified yet even though three months have passed since the fire.
Lee mostly used the truck to send leaflets to North Korea. The fire started near the fuel tank under the truck and quickly spread through the entire vehicle. After the truck fire spread to a nearby mountain, Lee woke up and realized that firefighters arrived to extinguish the forest fire around 7 a.m.
The police are investigating the possibility of arson as a surveillance camera captured a man with a backpack hurrying to leave the scene right after the fire. A police insider investigating the case said that the possibility of arson was being investigated based on CCTV analysis. The police added that while they are searching for a suspect with all possibilities open, no suspect has been identified.
Lee presumes the fire was set by a spy or pro-North Korean activist who was displeased by his balloon-sending activities. He claimed that the assailant may have tried to enter the house and hurt him but set the truck on fire after failing to enter after his dogs barked.
At the end of February, the Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for the damage, accusing the police of not protecting Lee. The lawyer group claims that if the police had been working normally, it could have been prevented. The group said that the police caused great mental damage to the victim suffering from threats from a spy or a pro-North Korean figure discontent with the balloon activities.
Until now, North Korea has openly threatened the distributors of anti-North Korean leaflets through North Korean broadcasts. In fact, the North blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in 2020 as a sign of protest against the propaganda leaflets. You must not mend the barn after the horse is stolen. The North Korean defectors spreading propaganda leaflets require special protection.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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