By Han Sang-hee
Police are investigating the death of a 75-year-old woman after it turns out she was the mother of an official from a conservative civic group that sends anti-North Korea flyers over the border.
The woman, surnamed Han, was found dead at a supermarket she owned in Mia-dong, Seoul, by a neighbor, Thursday, police said.
Police have not ruled out the possibility of murder since Han was the mother of the conservative Korea Parent Federation’s secretary general, Chu.
The group is one of the three organizations that led the propoganda campaign to send helium-filled balloons carrying leaflets attacking the North Korean regime over the past few weeks.
``It doesn’t seem like a robbery as money and other valuables were not stolen,’’ a police officer said.
Han was found on the floor bleeding, and there was also blood on the wall. She had a 3-centimeter wound on her head possibly made by a blunt weapon, according to the police.
Police have requested an autopsy to the National Forensics Service and are planning to look for evidence by searching for fingerprints and forensic material at the scene.
The death dealt a blow to the campaign, as it took place right before they were planning to send more flyers today.
The suspension of the plan to fly the balloons at Imjingak, a tourism pavilion located south of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, also came after residents in nearby Paju threatened to physically block those sending the leaflets.
The residents have claimed that the psychological campaign has prevented tourists to visit, scaring them away from the area.
Conservative groups said they will not cancel the campaign completely and wait for the results of the police investigation.
Anti-North Korean civic groups have sent flyers about pro-democracy protests in Egypt, Libya and other African nations to the North.
North Korea has responded with an aggressive threat to fire shots across the border.
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