SEOUL - Seoul police on Jan 8 said they have decided not to press criminal charges against those accused of violating the National Security Act by selling T-shirts bearing a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“The T-shirts (with Kim’s smiling face) cannot be regarded as an expression that benefits the enemy, or that threatens the safety and existence of the state... We (the police) determined the distributors were merely selling them for profit,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.

In October 2023, six right-wing activist groups filed a joint civil lawsuit against an individual surnamed Kim for selling novelty T-shirts that bore a smiling face of Mr Kim with the message, “Walk a flowery path, comrade”.

To “walk a flowery path” is a Korean idiom for wishing someone good luck. The group also filed the same charges against e-commerce giants Naver and Coupang for displaying the T-shirts on their platforms.

They claimed that the accused had violated Article 7 of the National Security Law prohibiting actions that “praise, incite or propagate activities of an anti-government organisation”, or the distribution and sale of such materials.

The products were taken down from the online platforms after the charges were filed. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK