(코리아타운뉴스) “Publicize Missy USA as a pro - North Korean group”

Kim Gi-chun ordered to frame Missy USA
Details revealed through leaked meeting notes

Recent report has revealed that the South Korean government, under its ousted former President Geun-hye Park, has attempted to lead the country’s media organizations to report that online community forum Missy USA, which mostly consists of female bloggers residing in the U.S., is related to North Korea.

In a report on Monday by South Korean daily the Hankyoreh, Park’s former chief of staff Ki-choon Kim allegedly told Doo-hyun Yoon, the then chief secretary for Park, to ensure that Missy USA is a group promoting the agenda of North Korean authorities.

Missy USA has made an organized effort since 2014 to publish an ad in the New York Times about Park’s negligent attitude towards the country’s devastating maritime disaster that year, which took lives of hundreds of high school students who were on a field trip.

Missy USA also held several protests calling for Park’s resignation in various locations across the U.S. The Hankyoreh reported that Kim’s alleged efforts to taint Missy USA’s reputation is a reflection of the Park administration’s tendency to oppress its own people.

“Missy USA and several of the anti-Korean government organizations in the U.S. held a protest to criticize the regime,” Kim allegedly told Yoon in a private meeting on Sept. 22 in 2014, according to the Hankyoreh.

“There was an article in the Blue Today about North Korean agent Gil-nam Noh attending the protest. Considering that and those organizations’ relation to North Korea, there is a need for the Korean media to report the truth behind Missy USA, which claims to be an online community for average Korean housewives in the U.S.”

Between September and October of 2014, online publication Blue Today published seven articles about Missy USA’s alleged pro-North Korea tendencies. However, Missy USA member Linda Lee won a lawsuit last year against a journalist and publisher of Blue Today, both of whom suggested the allegation about the website’s connection to North Korea’s communist regime.

The court in Seoul at the time ruled that there is simply no evidence or reasonable doubt to allege that Missy USA is related to North Korean authorities.

On Oct. 29, 2014, Kim also allegedly said in a private meeting: “Missy USA is an online shopping mall on the surface, but in reality, it’s where pro-North Korea activists promote anti-South Korean government contents. Let’s promote these findings so to the media.”


By Hyesun Chae