Gyeongnam police on Wednesday said the act of filming video footage and spreading it online can be subject to defamation charges, and asked the principal of the elementary school in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province to report to the Masan Eastern Police Station and say whether the school and the parents are willing to press charges.

The footage shows six students in third, fourth and fifth grade from the school writing swearwords in the guestbook. One child wrote, "Lee Myung-bak die! Are you crazy?" while others wrote Lee was indifferent to the prospect of killing his people by feeding them BSE-infected American beef and even threatened to kill him. Police will focus on three areas: who incited the children to write the insults, who made the video clip and who spread it. Protesters deny inciting the children.

Police will also investigate how and why the children ended up visiting tents set up by protesters at the Jogye Temple. The children were taking part in a cultural experience program in Seoul through an agency in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. On the day of the visit, July 23, their original schedule was to visit the Jongmyo Shrine, Changgyeong Palace and the National Museum of Korea, and there was no plan to visit the Jogye Temple.

The head of the agency, identified as Han, said children appeared to be curious about the protests when they passed the Jogye Temple and asked questions about them, so he told them to go and find out for themselves. But parents say that Han may deliberately have led the children to the temple since he apparently heads a parents group in the province that leans towards the radical Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union.

(englishnews@chosun.com )