Soldiers under probe for posting pro-Pyongyang messages on Web

South Korean military intelligence officials are investigating seven officers and soldiers for posting pro-Pyongyang messages on an online community that praises North Korea, military officials said Monday.

About 70 military personnel were registered as members of the online community, called the “Cyber Command for Defense of Fellow Countrymen,” and seven of them posted pro-North Korea messages there, officials said.

“An intense investigation by the Defense Security Command is under way against the seven entry-level officers and soldiers who wrote messages on the online community,” said a military official.

One of their postings said, “I want to work for my true homeland.”

“The investigation is focusing on whether the military personnel who wrote messages on the online community spread pro-North Korea materials to others,” the official said.

Some of the other military personnel had registered as members on the online community to investigate the pro-North Korea Web site, according to the official.

South Korea strictly bans activities praising North Korea under the National Security Law. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The Internet community was opened by a 43-year-old man, identified only by his surname Hwang, in 2002. Hwang received a suspended jail term last year on charges of violating the security law.

(Yonhap News)