Seoul (AsiaNews) – The first images of dissident activities in North Korea show a poster of Kim Jong-il covered in handwritten slogans against the leader. "People, let's stage both violent and non-violent struggles," said a leader of the North Korean group Youth Solidarity for Freedom in a spoken statement recorded on the videotape. "It's a legitimate struggle if you refuse to go to work when your factory does not provide food and living allowances. [. . .] "Why is Kim Jong-il so intent on blocking reform and openness?" [. . .] "Down with Kim Jong-il! People, let's all rise up and drive out the dictatorship!"

Although questions over the authenticity of the video document recently broadcast by Japanese TV Network Asahi still linger, the reasons do not. Richard Ragan, World Food Program country director for North Korea, said that North Korea daily food rations have dropped from 300 to 250 grams (8.8 ounce) per person, just half the minimum daily energy requirements.

Do Hee-yoon, president of the Seoul-based Civil Coalition for Human Rights of the Kidnapped and Defectors from North Korea which passed the video footage to Japan's TV network Asahi, said they got the tape through a Sino-Korean intermediary in China. It was ostensibly recorded in a rundown factory near the Chinese border in the town of Hoeryong. Defectors from the area who saw the tape had no trouble recognising the place.

Mr Do Hee-yoon said he had no doubts about the tape's authenticity. It "shows that the people who made the videotape were daring and organised enough to do this kind of highly risky work."

Such an act is punishable by death in the North

In the meantime, Seoul remains cautious. The South Korean Unification Ministry is verifying the credibility of the tape.

For Woo Seong-ji, a member of South Korea's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, "there are no clear proofs of the tape's authenticity". "The desperate economic situation," he said, "might have caused disaffection [vis-à-vis] the regime, but Kim's political power is firm".

By contrast, Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korea Studies in Seoul's privately operated Sejong Institute, believes the video to be "probably genuine." In his opinion, "given the current political situation that surrounds North Korea, it is probable that we shall see more of this in the near future. There is an impression that things are moving".

Tape aside, diplomats in post in Pyongyang had already noticed that some of Kim's omnipresent portraits had started to disappear from some public buildings in the capital.

Similarly, China has moved troops up to its border with North Korea which, according to an analyst with The Japan Times, shows how much Beijing is concerned about possible troubles in its neighbour.

North Korean refugees in South Korea speak in fact of increasingly frequent disturbances in rural towns in which people clamour for food and the removal of the country's leader.

For its part, the regime has responded by increasing the penalties and sentences for those arrested on charges of antigovernment activities.