This is the first time I have seen the North Koreans try and spread propaganda messages via a river:
In this photo provided by the South Korean military on July, 27, 2016, vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets are displayed on a table. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday they found strongly worded North Korean leaflets in the Han River, the first distribution of such propaganda materials via a waterway.
On July 22, the Korean military collected scores of tightly air-filled vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets which contained threats of the North’s possible attacks on the South using the intermediate-range Musudan ballistic missile, a spokesman for Seoul’s JCS said in a press briefing.
“North Korea intentionally floated the leaflets toward the mouth of the Han River and were picked up by guard troops near Gimpo,” the spokesman said, citing an analysis by relevant government officials. The river flows through Seoul, South Korea’s capital city, although sources said it is not clear where the leaflets originated from. [Yonhap]
North Korean radar and anti-aircraft batteries along the DMZ would probably locate and take out a number of the drones. I think such an idea would actually work better if executed by activist groups in China if they are able to not get cracked down on by the Chinese authorities:
A researcher has called on the United States to consider using drones to send USB sticks with information that can effectively win the hearts of North Koreans and provide them with information about the outside world.
Senior Researcher Kim Yon-ho at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies made the call in his recent contribution to Foreign Policy on Saturday.
Kim said that there are limitations to the conventional methods of smuggling high-tech data into North Korea, claiming that delivering USBs with drones is a high-tech alternative to traditional smuggling tactics.
The researcher said that due to the flourishing black market and technological developments, the means of access to outside media has advanced beyond televisions, radios, and DVDs into more interactive forms such as PCs, tablets and USB drives.
Kim said that USB drives are considered effective means of accessing information about the outside world, as they are smuggled through balloons and easily made available on the black market. [KBS World Radio]
You can read the whole Foreign Policy article at this link. The article pretty much makes the case that I have been making for year to execute a coordinated information warfare strategy within North Korea which should be part of a larger strategy to undermine the legitimacy of the Kim regime.
A group of North Korean defectors prepares to release balloons containing leaflets critical of the North Korean regime in Paju, near the inter-Korean border, on April 6, 2016. The balloons were released despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that the government can keep activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, citing the safety of residents there. (Yonhap)
The ROK really cannot complain about this considering how private organizations continue to send propaganda leaflets and CDs via balloon into North Korea. The nuisance of dealing with the litter caused by this propaganda war is worth it in my opinion because of the effect the propaganda has within North Korea:
North Korea has sent leaflets and compact discs criticizing President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri Party to South Korea, police said Wednesday, the latest move in its propaganda campaign.
Police retrieved some 20,000 leaflets and 40 CDs from Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, just northwest of Seoul, at around 5 a.m.
Earlier in the day, dozens of leaflets criticizing South Korea’s military and its joint exercise with the United States were found in central Seoul at around midnight, according to police.
Later on Wednesday, a group of defectors in South Korea sent 300,000 leaflets with messages criticizing the communist regime and 4,000 sheets of local newspapers over the border from Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The same group had sent another 300,000 leaflets to the North last month. [Yonhap]
North Korea is continuing with their propaganda campaign and this time they have released a video depicting rockets landing into Seoul and destroying such iconic buildings as the Blue House, the Ministry of Defense and the War Memorial. They also have a scene of rockets landing and destroying a 2nd Infantry Division camp, but it is hard to tell which one it is:
North Korea released a video Monday that depicts an attack on South Korean government buildings, including the presidential Blue House. The 88-second video is called “if the ultimatum goes unanswered” and ends with the words “everything will turn into ashes.” Over the past several weeks, the country has repeatedly issued threats against Seoul and Washington, largely in response to annual joint military exercises that began in early March. The Korean People’s Army has issued an “ultimatum” demanding South Korean President Park Geun-Hye apologize for the larger-than-usual war games, which include an operation built to “decapitate” Pyongyang’s leadership, should a full-scale conflict arise. A little more than a week ago, the website released a video showing a nuclear attack on the United States. [The Daily Beast]
ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak and his group have continued with their propaganda balloon campaign against North Korea in the wake of the Kim regime’s repeated weapons tests:
An organization made up of North Korean escapees and a conservative civic group have distributed some 100-thousand leaflets denouncing the North’s nuclear and missile tests across the border.
Amid the heightened inter-Korean tension, Fighters for Free North Korea and the National Action Campaign for Freedom and Democracy in Korea distributed the leaflets on Monday in Paju, Gyeonggi Province near the border.
The organizations said that the people have the obligation to chastise Kim Jong-un’s threats and provocations regardless of whether or not the South’s government and military engage in psychological warfare.
The organizations then called on the public to join movements to send balloons containing leaflets to the North.
Last Saturday, Fighters for Free North Korea distributed 80-thousand leaflets condemning the North from Gimpo and Paju, as the day marked the sixth anniversary of the sinking of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan torpedoed by Pyongyang.
Park Sang-hak, the head of the group, said that the organization will continue to send what will be a combined ten million leaflets critical of Pyongyang over the next three months. [KBS World Radio]
