A woman displays a banner showing a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) to wish for peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Seoul, South Korea on March 19, 2019. AP
SEOUL, South Korea — International journalists’ organizations are criticizing South Korea’s press freedoms after the country’s ruling party singled out a Bloomberg reporter with South Korean nationality over what it claimed was a “borderline traitorous” article insulting President Moon Jae-in, resulting in threats to the reporter’s safety.
The Democratic Party said Tuesday that it has no immediate plans to withdraw a March 13 statement by spokesman Lee Hae-sik, who attacked the reporter by name over a September article whose headline described the liberal Moon as acting as the “top spokesman” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the UN General Assembly.
Lee the next day also attacked a New York Times article published last October that said Moon was serving as Kim’s “agent” while advocating diplomacy with North Korea. Lee tried to discredit the Times story by bringing up its South Korean author’s nationality. Lee said it was “merely an article written by a black-haired wire reporter,” but didn’t call out the writer by his name. In South Korea, the expression “black-haired” is commonly used in nationalistic insults against South Koreans working for foreign companies who are said to be disloyal to the country.
Moon’s office has refused to answer multiple requests for comment.
The ruling party statements by Lee came in response to a parliamentary speech last week by conservative lawmaker Na Kyung-won, who borrowed the Bloomberg headline to criticize Moon’s diplomacy with Pyongyang following the collapse of last month’s summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump.
The Asian American Journalists Association expressed “deep concerns” about the treatment of the Bloomberg journalist, saying that her safety was under threat “simply for doing her job.”
“That she is being targeted by members of the South Korean government is also troubling,” the AAJA said. “Threatening or intimidating journalists is unacceptable. Such activities have a chilling effect and undermine the freedom of the press for all journalists working in Korea.”
AAJA-Asia and its Seoul subchapter, as well as the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club, have also issued statements expressing concern over the Democratic Party’s statement, which the SFCC described as a “form of censorship and journalistically chilling.”
In a country deeply divided along ideological lines, being described as North Korea-friendly is a sensitive accusation for liberal politicians like Moon, who has been unwavering in his commitment for inter-Korean rapprochement, even in the face of North Korean threats. Moon has lobbied hard to set up nuclear diplomacy between Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul.
In an effort to keep the fragile diplomacy alive, Moon has tried to improve Kim’s image and portray him as a credible diplomatic counterpart, describing him as a “candid and polite” leader who sincerely wanted to trade away his nukes to bring economic prosperity to impoverished North Koreans. Experts say the breakdown of the Trump-Kim talks has raised further doubts about Moon’s claim that Kim is genuinely interested in dealing away his nuclear weapons.
The presidential Blue House responded sharply to Na’s comments, calling them an insult to both Moon and South Koreans who want peace. During her parliamentary speech, Na said, “Please ensure that we never again hear the embarrassing talk that the president of the Republic of Korea is the top spokesman of Kim Jong Un,” referring to South Korea by its formal name, as Democratic Party lawmakers began shouting at her.
While criticizing Na, Lee described the Bloomberg reporter’s article as “borderline traitorous content that insulted the head of state while wearing the cloak of a U.S. wire service.”
Moon’s two conservative predecessors were both accused of suppressing freedom of speech.
Under former President Park Geun-hye, who is currently serving a lengthy jail term over a corruption scandal, prosecutors indicted a Japanese journalist on charges of defaming Park by citing salacious rumors about her whereabouts on the day of a ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people in 2014.
Before Park, former President Lee Myung-bak was said by critics to have turned major TV networks into his mouthpieces by filling their corporate leadership with close supporters. /ee