One poster titled “A Letter to South Korean Students” included a note claimed to have been written by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Another titled “Let’s Overthrow South Korea’s Regime” was placed next to it.

The posters criticize the Moon administration, including its income-led growth policy, plan to phase out nuclear power plants and policy toward North Korea.

In “Let’s Overthrow South Korea’s Regime,” a group labeled the National Council of Student Representatives urged people to come and join a candlelight vigil Saturday at Hyehwa Station in Seoul. 

The NCSR is an organization that led student movements in the 1980s, but the group that claims to have made the posters is not related to the original organization, spokesperson Kim Jung-sik told The Korea Herald on Monday.

“Most of the members are young people in their 20s and 30s. We prepared the poster attaching the event nationwide to show our deep frustration with the Moon administration,” Kim said.

According to Kim, the group borrowed the name of the NCSR and North Korean leader Kim for satire, while the posters were created for April Fools’ Day to garner attention. 

Some 100 members gather online and offline, and communicate with each other via email and mobile messenger app Telegram.

“Some local media outlets have described our group as a conservative organization, but the members don’t really lean toward any political orientation. We just wanted to raise our voice against the government’s policies in a fresh way.

“We are not trying to drag down Moon’s administration or shake up the country. All we want for the government is to listen to our voices and revise some policies that need to be changed,” Kim added.

The group posted similar satirical posters at some 100 universities in December last year.

The group plans to post the latest posters at some 450 schools and to share updates via its Facebook page in real time.

Meanwhile, police are reportedly collecting the posters and investigating the people who posted them, as they could be in violation of national security law.

Kim, however, said that punishment for the posters would be against freedom of expression.

By Park Ju-young (jupark@heraldcorp.com)