A group believed to be protecting the son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s assassinated brother yesterday declared the launch of a government-in-exile, saying it aims to abolish the “great evil.”
The Cheollima Civil Defense organization — which offers to assist people attempting to defect from North Korea — emerged in 2017 when it posted an online video of Kim Han-sol, saying that it had guaranteed his safety after his father was killed by two women who smeared him with nerve agent.
In a lengthy statement posted on its Web site in Korean and English yesterday — the 100th anniversary of a Korean movement against Japanese colonial rule — the group announced itself as a provisional government for the North called “Free Joseon.”
“We dedicate ourselves completely to the abolition of this great evil, a stain on the very soul of humanity,” it said in a statement, adding that it would continue its campaign until “the day that light is truly restored to Pyongyang.”
The group is “the sole legitimate representative of the Korean people of the North,” it said, adding: “Joseon must and shall be free. Arise! Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!”
The group posted a video of a woman dressed in a traditional black-and-white hanbok and her face blurred or only showing her back reading out the statement in front of a traditional Korean pavilion in a field.
Little is known about the Cheollima Civil Defense and it was unclear who is behind it, although some have speculated that it has links to South Korea’s spy agency.
It uses South Korean transliteration for its name, while some of the Korean text on its Web site reads as if it could have been a translation from English.
In the past the group has said that it responded to urgent requests for protection from “compatriots” and has thanked countries including the Netherlands, China and the US for their help.
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