Police clamp down on anti-Park posters

By Ko Dong-hwan

Police in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, are pursuing unknown creators of street posters satirizing President Park Geun-hye, triggering a debate over freedom of expression.

The poster shows a smiling Park dressed in traditional “hanbok’’ and seemingly attempting to ride on the back of a dog. Several dogs, their expressions somewhere between blankness and depression, stare at the president from behind.

Other dogs run toward Park with mouths agape, like personal messengers, and the backdrop has a silhouette of a ship sinking below the blue horizon.

The Sewol ferry sank off the waters of the southwestern island of Jindo April 16 with 476 people aboard. Only 172 of them were rescued with the remainder confirmed as dead or missing.

Critics have accused the government of bungling its emergency response and failing to properly enforce regulations that would have stopped the ship's operators from putting profit before safety.

The poster found in Gangneung appears to be an extension of this criticism with the dogs portraying Park’s aides or government-friendly media.