Pyongyang seeks ‘internal conflict over anti-N.K. fliers’

North Korea is threatening South Korea with scrapping of inter-Korean dialogue after firing gun shots at anti-North Korean fliers that were sent by a North Korean defectors’ group on Friday. “It is a political provocation that was intentionally executed under the connivance of the U.S., and South Korean regime,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency blasted the sending of fliers toward the North. “The planned second high-level contact has effectively gone up in smoke.” Rather than apologizing to the South for gun shots that fell into the Yeoncheon area in Gyeonggi Province, the North is blaming the South for the incident, an act that is ridiculous and lamentable at best.

The North’s motive is too obvious. Pyongyang has the hidden intention of blocking distribution of propaganda fliers to the North, which Pyongyang has been constantly demanding at the pretext of "halting of reciprocal slandering." The North apparently launched a provocation with gun fires with a thoroughly calculated plan, expecting that it would generate mounting public opposition within the South against the sending of fliers, and started applying pressure to cause internal conflict within the South by mobilizing its state media outlet.

Ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung said, "In any case, I hope that we avoid conducting activity that could anger the North, if at all possible.” But this seems to be imprudent. The same holds true with the main opposition party that criticized the South Korean government for failing to block distribution of fliers. The political circle’s raising issue with flier sending is no different from the situation of being fooled around by the North’s plot. If the government bans on the use of fliers as the North demands, will the South also have to accept if the North demands Seoul to give up the Northern Limit Line or halt conduct of South Korea-U.S. joint military drills?

Fliers sent to the North have served as a medium for introduction of information from outside, which is enlightening what freedom is to the North, the reclusive state that is shut off from the rest of the world. North Korean human rights activist Suzanne Scholte, who heads the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation, said that inflowing information into North Korea is not a violation of international law, but rather enhances protection and improvement of human rights of North Koreans. Pyongyang is opposing anti-North Korean fliers because it fears that hidden truth may spread within the North and thus cause crack in its regime. An attempt to forcefully halt the use of anti-North Korean fliers due to fear over the North’s provocations runs counter to the value of democracy and unification, as ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung noted. However, the South needs to find strategic methods to send balloons in the middle of the night without prior notice in order not to give Pyongyang any excuse for rejection.

It is regrettable that the North launched provocations in the Yellow Sea and inland area in less than a week after it deployed three high-powered North Korean leaders to Incheon. However, a phase of dialogue that has been created for the first time in years should not collapse nonetheless. Seoul must carefully manage the situation to ensure that a high-level inter-Korean contact can take place as scheduled on the firm foundation of its strong deterrence against the North’s provocations.