hankyoreh

traditional Korean attire

By Song Ho-kyun, staff reporter

“Is there a specific brand of ‘fear politics’? Isn’t that what it is when your first reaction is to crack down on the people you don’t like or the people who disagree with you?”

Artist Lee Ha is known for his politically satirical pop art, which includes his “Pretty Dictator” series and posters of President Park Geun-hye dressed as Snow White. Now the 46-year-old, whose birth name is Lee Byeong-ha, finds himself once again at the center of a controversy.

Recently, Lee produced 10,000 stickers, roughly the size of a person’s palm, showing an image of Park dressed in hanbok, traditional Korean attire, in front of a sinking paper boat.

“I wanted to express the public’s frustration watching the Sewol tragedy unfold,” he explained about the work. The images soon spread over social media, and immediately around 70 people said they wanted to help in putting the stickers up.

One of them was Ham Su-won, 34, a freelance photographer in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. On May 21, Ham put up 23 of the stickers in places around downtown Gangneung. That evening, he said, he saw an unfamiliar vehicle parked in front of his home. The men inside were looking at the house, and quickly drove away when they made eye contact with Ham.

The next day, four plainclothes police officers arrived at Ham’s door and asked him to go with them.

“I asked them, ‘Didn’t you come to my house last night?’ and they said yes,” he recalled. “They said they were staking me out for an arrest. I was shocked.”

The police charged Ham with violating the Outdoor Advertising, etc. Control Act. He was booked without detention for putting the stickers on streetlights, which are public property.

“It was an issue involving the head of state, so they first examined the facts to confirm a crime had been committed, and then they took action,” explained National Police Agency (NPA) commissioner-general Lee Sung-han at a talk with reporters on May 26.

A senior police officer said the investigation only began after the stickers had been reported.

“It’s against the law to put advertisements on street lights,” the officer explained on condition of anonymity.

But Jeong Min-young, an attorney with the public interest law center for the group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said the police’s decision could be read differently.

“It could be seen as an attempt to use the Outdoor Advertising, etc. Control Act as a tool to prevent satire or criticism of the president - or to suppress our constitutional rights to freedom of expression,” Jeong said.

The maker of the stickers was also troubled by the response.

“Our streets are filled with advertisements,” Lee said. “How does it make sense for them to only stake people out and arrest them when it’s a sticker satirizing President Park? If anything, they should be investigating me.”

Lee was previously indicted in 2012 on violation of the Public Official Election Act after putting up satirical posters in downtown Busan showing Park - then head of the Saenuri Party emergency measures committee - dressed as Snow White. He was acquitted last year in a jury trial.

in front of a sinking paper boat

How does Lee’s work compare with political satire in other countries? In the United Kingdom, the recent play “King Charles III” takes a satirical look at the country’s current heir to the throne. The poster shows Prince Charles’ actual face with a crown on his head and tape over his mouth.

The actual play goes even farther, featuring the late Princess Diana as a ghost and bluntly mocking Prince Charles and the royal family. But as yet, no one had made a legal issue of the content. Indeed, it has won a number of British theater honors recently, including a Laurence Olivier Award.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]