I don’t know why I even bother but if anyone had any doubts on who the the leftist activists are that scuffled with the activist group releasing balloons filled with anti-Kim Jong-il propaganda leaflets this week, I have connected the dots:

Six members from the Fighters for a Free North Korea and the Families of Abducted and Detained in North Korea tried to send some 100,000 leaflets in huge balloons in front of Freedom Bridge in Imjingak, an area near the border, in the morning. They clashed with some 50 members of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement and the Korea Women’s Federation for half an hour.

 

In the scuffle, a member of Free North Korea who was preparing to send flyers hit a man from a rival group on the head. The injured was taken to a hospital for treatment and police went after the assailant.

 

The two groups planned to send some 100,000 leaflets to North Korea in 10 large balloons, but 10,000 leaflets were blown away due to the clash. [Donga Ilbo]

So who is Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement you may ask?  It is an umbrella group of pro-North Korean and leftist groups that was formed to protest the re-opening of the Korean beef market to US beef:

Pro-North Korea and leftist groups are also showing signs of escalating the protests into demonstrations against the United States and the Lee administration of Korea.

 

? Progressive group organizes candlelight vigils

 

The Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement posted a guideline for the “fight against mad cow disease” on its homepage Sunday. The guideline said, “Let us roll up our sleeves to help more people express their anger. Let us plan candlelight vigils in all regions of the nation.”

 

“Let us organize emergency meetings in every region and publicize unified public action guidelines.”

 

The group said it will “declare war” after holding an emergency meeting in Seoul Tuesday afternoon and hold a vigil at Seoul Cheonggye Plaza at 7 p.m. every day.

 

The alliance is comprised of 37 groups including the Korea Farmers’ League; the progressive Democratic Labor Party; the Korea Federation of University Student Councils; Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities; and the Pan-Korean Alliance for Unification.  [Donga Ilbo]

ROK Drop readers may remember that the Democratic Labor Party and other leftist anti-US groups were linked to a North Korean spy ring back in 2006.  The Korean Federation of University Student Councils is just the English name for the pro-North Korean group Hanchongryun.  Hanchongryun were some of the most violent US beef protesters routinely clashing with police and have a long track record of anti-US and pro-North Korean activity.  This group was actually an illegal pro-North Korean collaborator group until prior Korean President Roh Moo-hyun came to power and allowed them operate openly again. 

The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities is another leftist group that released a report claiming a number of Korean conservative figures such as Park Chung-hee and even the composer of the Korean national athemn Ahn Eak-tai are Japanese collaborators.  The report had  little to do with history and more to do with discrediting Korean conservatist, which is the norm for these historical revisionist groups in Korea. The Pan-Korean Alliance for Unification has a long history of anti-US activity to include the violent clashes at Camp Humphreys over the bases expansion as well as assaulting American soldiers participating in a joint training exercise with the ROK Army.  The former President of this group was even arrested for being a North Korean spy. 

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It is quite clear who these groups are that are trying to stop the activist groups from flying their propaganda leaflets.  The only question that remains is if their attempt to stop these leaflets was from direct orders from Pyongyang or an effort taken upon themselves to do?  Either way this is a problem that can be solved by a quick call to the retired ROK Marine Corps Association.  It worked before.