South Korean students today embroiled in a mass outrage over tours to North Korea advertized on the Hong Kong University campus, lobbying the University to ban and censor the tours whilst engaging in serial destruction of posters belonging to several companies.
The outrage began when last night a South Korean former student leader wrote a post in seeming disgust over a poster she spotted describing a "North Korean Victory Day" tour, misinterpreting the name of the tour as a glorification of the Korean War and failing to see the bigger picture. Anger ensured, with her instructing students in Korean language to destroy the posters en masse, which resulted in controversy and even a confrontation on the campus.
The outraged post went viral amongst South Korean students
Anger over this particular tour soon turned into a witchunt of North Korean tours throughout the campus, with Lupine Travel and Eastern Vision's content being mercilessly destroyed at the hand of student mobs. Whilst at the same time, other South Korean students ranted with the insistence visiting North Korea was morally indefensible, which one student foaming that "the number of HKU and exchange students that learn of these trips from those posters and actually join the trips is not negligible. A significant portion of my non-Korean friends were at least interested, or even made an enquiry regarding the trip".
Despite appeals towards the University and destruction of content, companies have continued to post their tour advertizements as normal, will continue to do so and are not ceasing activities. The University has not passed public comment on the issue, but it is highly likely no action will be taken. Visit North Korea itself makes no apology for the promotion of content and offers the reminder that people have the exclusive right and choice to visit North Korea should they wish, an activity which is highly educational and personally moving.
