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Korean American banned from leaving country for alleged pro-NK talk shows

December 11, 2014

Korean-American Shin Eun-mi, 53, holds a press conference Tuesday in central Seoul, where she lashed out at conservative media outlets. [NEWSIS]

Korean-American Shin Eun-mi, 53, holds a press conference Tuesday in central Seoul, where she lashed out at conservative media outlets. [NEWSIS]

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A Korean American woman has been temporarily banned from leaving South Korea amid an investigation into her alleged pro-North Korean remarks during a series of talk shows, police said Thursday.

The move comes after local conservative civic groups filed a complaint against Shin Eun-mi, 53, and Hwang Sun, the former deputy spokeswoman of the now-defunct Democratic Labor Party, with the police.

They were both targets of a chemical attack by an 18-year-old high school student on Wednesday. He threw a bowl full of burning gasoline and sulfuric acid on the stage.

During the talk shows where guests and the audience exchange views on a specific subject, the two women, as guests, allegedly made remarks sympathetic toward the communist regime and painted the North Korean regime in a positive light.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency probing the case said it banned Shin from leaving the country for 10 days as she had disobeyed an order to appear for questioning.

Shin, who has published a book on her trip to North Korea, had reportedly planned to leave South Korea on Friday.

A pot and a bottle of sulfuric acid, confiscated by police after a teenager tried to attack participants of a public forum with them, are displayed with the suspect's other belongings at Iksan Police Station in South Jeolla Province, Thursday. (Yonhap)

A pot and a bottle of sulfuric acid, confiscated by police after a teenager tried to attack participants of a public forum with them, are displayed with the suspect’s other belongings at Iksan Police Station in South Jeolla Province, Thursday. (Yonhap)

Earlier in the day, police also raided Hwang’s home and the office of a talk show organizer as part of their investigation.

Hwang is known for having given birth to a baby girl during a sightseeing trip to North Korea in 2005.

Police have reportedly been investigating the duo on suspicion of violating South Korea’s draconian National Security Law that bans any “anti-state” activities that attempt to praise, encourage or propagandize North Korean political ideals.