A shadowy dissident group dedicated to overthrowing the North Korean regime has released footage purporting to show a person inside the totalitarian state destroying portraits of national founder Kim Il-sung and second-generation dictator Kim Jong-il.
“Without question, you’d be executed by firing squad,” said Ken Eom, a former North Korean military officer who defected to South Korea in 2010. “For example, it would be possible for someone at home to quietly tear up a portrait of Kim Il-sung – something like that is possible,” he said. “But I think a performance like this is impossible.”Free Joseon is the name that Cheollima, which describes itself as a government in exile, intends to use for a future state after the “liberation” of the North, which the Kims have ruled with an iron fist since 1948.
Although its membership and funding remain shrouded in secrecy, the group has been described by some experts as potentially the most organised and audacious opposition to emerge against the Kim dynasty in seven decades.