By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The National Police Agency said Monday it will publish and distribute comic books critical of the North Korean regime and its nuclear programs to elementary and middle schools.
The police agency has hosted essay writing and leaflet-making contests for students as a means to educate them about national security but this is the first time for the agency to come up with plans to distribute comic books.
"To educate on the importance of national security, we will distribute about 150,000 comic books to police stations and schools," an agency officer said. "We've asked the publishers to include the problems of the North Korean regime and the danger of nuclear weapons to South Korea."
The booklet will help young students better understand situations within the divided Korean Peninsula, the official said. It will also show the "foolishness" of South Koreans who support North Korean ideology and those who insist on the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Korea and scrapping of the National Security Law.
However, progressive teachers are up in arms over the plan, saying that the agency is trying to infringe upon their right to decide on education material.
"The police agency has never discussed with us the security book plan and it is not the job of police to educate students about national security as we already have our own programs," said Eum Min-young, spokesperson for the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union. "National security education by the police occurred under the military dictatorship government in the past. Education authorities should not allow police involvement in the education of our students."
"In addition, schools should focus on unification education rather than national security education," he added.
The opposition Democratic Party said in a statement that: "The plan by the police to publish comic books about national security is an outdated and childish idea."