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N. Korea aims internal strife in S. Korea with propaganda leaflets

N. Korea aims internal strife in S. Korea with propaganda leaflets

Posted October. 27, 2014 06:49,   

한국어

In Imjingak and Paju area on Saturday, an anti-North Korea activist group that attempted to fly propaganda leaflets clashed with local residents trying to resist the balloon sending event. The anti-North Korean activists had announced that they would float balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North at Imjingak on that day. Liberal activists and Paju residents were pre-occupying the venue in an attempt to foil that plan. Both groups shouted and cursed at each other, eventually resulting in a violent tussle. Finally, the commotion came to an end as the anti-North Korean activists moved to another mountain in Gimpo City and flied propaganda leaflets. But this turmoil regarding anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets caused an internal conflict among South Koreans, as North Korea intends.

It is meaningful for civil groups to distribute propaganda leaflets to let North Koreans know dark secret of the 3-generation hereditary rule by the Kim family and news from the free world. Bruce W. Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said the anti-North Korea leaflets are an Ebola-like threat to the Kim Jong Un regime, adding that anti-Pyongyang leaflets could spread the anti-regime mindset (inside North Korea). North Korea’s fierce opposition also shows that the truth contained in the leaflet is that much painful to the North.

However, concerns are growing in the South since the North opened fire against balloons with propaganda leaflets and some of the round landed in Yeoncheon region in Gyeonggi Province on Oct. 10. According to MBN’s poll, 62.9 percent of the respondents said, "Anti-North Korean leaflets must be stopped," which more than doubled 24.6 percent of the respondents who said, "Anti-North Korean leaflets must be continued." However, flying leaflets is an act guaranteed by the constitutional freedom of expression and there is no legal basis to block this. Probably, the survey results show that the respondents were afraid of the North’s military threats.

How to float the anti-North Korea leaflets must be reviewed so as to avoid concerns over national security or threats against local residents’ livelihood while keeping the positive effect of sending leaflets. Some alternatives can be sending balloons at midnight without prior announcement, or adjusting schedules to float balloons with leaflets given the inter-Korean relations. Park Sang-hak, founder of Fighters for a Free North Korea, said, “The public event is necessary to gather sponsors,” when asked why the activist group distributes anti-North Korea leaflets openly. However, it may get harder to attract sponsors with such growing anti-leaflet public opinion. The activists must think about another way to let sponsors know effectiveness of anti-North Korea leaflets and balloons.

It is important to develop a technology to float anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North without fanfare and drop them into the regions where many civilians reside. We must not hamper activities to spread the news of freedom to the North. What must be criticized is the North Korean regime, not the activist group that makes efforts to give news to the brethren beyond the closed door of North Korea.