The controversy surrounding North Korean leafleting continues. The South Korean government has maintained its stance that it will not sanction leafleting despite North Korea’s threats. This writer argues that leafleting should continue, emphasizing the importance of the North Korean people’s right to know and internal change.
The South Korean government’s position and response to the leafleting issue
On October 10, North Korea fired 10 rounds from a 13.5 mm howitzer at a mountain in Yasan, Yeoncheon County, when a group of North Korean defectors sent a balloon with North Korean leaflets to the North. Two rounds of live ammunition fired by North Korea fell on a civil defense shelter next to the Yeoncheon County office in Hwangsan-ri, Jung-myeon, Yeoncheon-gun, causing residents to evacuate. In response, on October 24, Unification Minister Ryu Gil-jae said in a national inspection of the Ministry of Unification that “there will be no change in principle or position on the issue of North Korean leaflets.” This is interpreted as a statement that the government will take a wait-and-see approach to North Korea and the problems caused by the flyers. North Korea has said that it will not engage in inter-Korean dialogue unless the South Korean government takes steps to prevent South Korean private organizations from carrying out leafleting. However, despite these threats, North Korean leafleting has continued.
Under these circumstances, should the South Korean government take action to prevent private organizations, such as North Korean defector groups, from leafleting North Korea, or should leafleting continue?
Why shouldn’t leafleting be banned?
In my opinion, the South Korean government should not ban private organizations from leafleting North Korea under the current circumstances. The first reason is that it is North Korea’s intention to ban leafleting. When the North Korean army tried to shoot down Pyongyang’s Pira with a high-powered gun, the bullets fell into nearby South Korean villages, which can be considered a provocation by North Korea. This is further supported by the fact that they used an artillery piece capable of firing hundreds of rounds every minute. North Korea provokes because the benefits of provocation outweigh the losses of not provoking. North Korea is likely looking for some level of provocation to intimidate and take the initiative against South Korea’s shear spraying of North Korea.
Currently, North Korean fire is fueling conflict between residents of Yeoncheon, South Korea, and North Korean defector groups. There is also a growing movement in political circles to impose sanctions on North Korea for its shearing, which may be playing into Pyongyang’s hands. North and South Korea have been at war for nearly 70 years, although they have been in a ceasefire. If South Korea were to back down as a result of this temporary provocation, it would be a boost to the dignity of the North Korean regime, and furthermore, it would make South Korea the laughing stock of the world. Considering this, it would be wrong to sanction the leafleting.
A rebuttal to this argument would be that the South Korean government’s top priority right now is the safety of its citizens, not the competition of egos. The argument is that shearing has increased tensions between North and South Korea, and if it continues, it could lead to a military engagement, which could jeopardize the safety of our people. Here are my thoughts This is not the first time that North Korea has been conducting leafleting, but has been doing so consistently in the past. In fact, North Korea has fired upon the release of balloons and this is not uncommon. The difference this time is that the North Korean defectors or civilian organizations involved in the leafleting notified the media in advance, and the leafleting took place during the day instead of at night. Also, the atmospheric winds were stable, so the balloons did not reach high altitudes as usual, but remained low and flew into North Korea. Once released into the air, the balloons carrying leaflets and other items quickly rise two to three kilometers into the air. The total range of the high-powered artillery is about 1.4 kilometers, but this time, the wind was very stable, so the balloons stayed about 1 kilometer above the ground, and it was daytime, which was a good condition for North Korea to respond with fire. The advance disclosure to the media was done as a means for civilian organizations to obtain sponsorship from outside companies due to lack of funds, and to generate publicity and interest from the international community. This could be easily solved by the South Korean government providing some support to the CSOs. If civil society organizations pay attention to these points in the future, there will be no military confrontation and the safety of the people will be guaranteed.
Is the North Korean flyer the only way to democratize North Korea?
Another rebuttal to my first argument is that leafleting is not the only way to democratize North Korea. There are many other ways to safely change the consciousness of North Korean citizens without provoking North Korea, such as radio broadcasts and cultural exchanges between North and South Korea. But I disagree. While leafleting is not the only way to democratize North Korea, radio and cultural exchanges have their limitations. The problem with radios is that people who don’t have them can’t hear them. Radio ownership is banned in North Korea. They are smuggled in from China, and the small radios are expensive and out of reach for many people. Cultural exchanges are also limited in their ability to democratize the consciousness of North Korean citizens because they are not politically colored.
There are many reasons for defection. Maybe they don’t like the closed system, or maybe they’re eager for the Korean Wave that flows into North Korea from China. But I believe they defect because they recognize the contradictions of a system that has no place in the modern world, such as North Korea’s three generations of succession, and they recognize how North Korea is viewed from the outside and how it fits into the world. If they simply defect to find a freer and better life in South Korea than in North Korea, this will not help improve the North Korean system. In this sense, the leafleting is similar in purpose and intent to the South Korean pro-democracy movement of the 1980s. The nature of the resistance may be passive, but the act of pushing back against the dictatorship and providing the people with the right to know can be called a democratization movement in North Korea. In fact, leafleting has been recognized by the international community as a highly creative pro-democracy movement, and Park Sang-hak, the head of the Free North Korea Movement, was awarded the Havel Prize for Human Rights, which is considered more prestigious than the Nobel Peace Prize. The Havel Human Rights Prize was established to honor the spirit of democracy and human rights of former President Havel, who led the Czech democracy movement. If the South Korean government suppresses and sanctions the legitimate and unyielding pro-democracy movement that is recognized by the international community, the international community will consider South Korea as a country that suppresses democracy. I believe that as an advanced democracy, South Korea should at least not stop leafleting. Currently, North Korean defectors are leafleting under threat of death from the North Korean government.
North Korean citizens’ right to know
My second argument is that North Koreans have a right to know what the truth is. According to Mr. Lee Min-bok, the head of the North Korean balloon team of the North Korean Compatriots for Direct Assistance, the reason for the leafleting is the need to inform the North Korean people about the truth. The balloons sent to North Korea by civilian organizations include messages criticizing the regime, one-dollar bills, radios, and more. According to Mr. Lee Min-bok, many North Koreans actually cross over when they see flyers from South Korea. In my opinion, the most important task that North Korea needs right now is to educate them about what is right and what is wrong. Why has North Korea not had a revolution or rebellion in the 70+ years since the Korean War? There are some things that are not known to the outside world, but even if we ignore them, the answer is North Korea’s brainwashing policy. Like Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984, North Korean citizens are indoctrinated from an early age into the legitimacy of the three generations of the ruling family and indoctrinated with communist ideas, which prevents them from questioning and resisting the government. North Koreans are not informed about what the world outside of North Korea looks like, how advanced science and technology are, or how backward communist ideas are – it’s not that they don’t rebel and revolutionize, it’s that they don’t know what they don’t know. I believe that if the ongoing leafleting of North Korea creates a slight change in consciousness among the North Korean people, there will be a small sprout that will one day overthrow the regime.
As a rebuttal to the second argument, one could argue that even if North Koreans have a right to know, it shouldn’t pose a threat to the safety of South Koreans. The third argument is that the right to life of third parties, the South Korean people, is being threatened by North Korean right-to-know organizations. I think it’s true that people in neighboring areas feel at risk, but North Korea’s weapons have reached a point where they can hit every part of South Korea, not just the neighboring areas, and they can hit their targets with precision. In other words, there is no safe area anywhere, so sending balloons with leaflets into North Korea doesn’t just endanger the people along the border. I don’t think the threat to the livelihoods of people along the border is a sufficient reason to ban leafleting, and leafleting is part of North Korea’s psychological warfare. Other sectors, such as diplomacy and the military, also engage in psychological warfare with North Korea at some risk. To ban leafleting would be to ban North Korea’s psychological warfare policies in other areas. This is not logical for South Korea, which is at war with North Korea.
Changing the mindset of North Korean citizens
Another rebuttal to my second argument is that North Korean citizens have been thoroughly indoctrinated from a young age, and it is doubtful that a single leaflet will change their consciousness. I agree that it may be too much to expect a single flyer to change the consciousness of a large number of people. However, there is currently a Hallyu craze among North Korean citizens. South Korean culture, such as dramas and movies, which were secretly imported during trade between China and North Korea, are popular among North Koreans. Even high-ranking North Korean officials are said to enjoy them, which suggests that the hostile feelings that North Koreans had toward South Korea in the late 20th century have waned and are now viewed in a more positive light. Therefore, it is believed that Pira has a greater effect on consciousness than in the past.
Balancing peace and safety
There is a fact that many people forget at the moment. North and South Korea are still at war. Sure, there’s a ceasefire and a ceasefire, but there’s also a problem with just being safe. At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if North Korea invaded at any time. South Korea has become so accustomed to peace that North Korea’s attacks on our side are considered strange. Of course, we don’t want to deliberately make North Korea angry and start a war. However, I am worried that we need to get used to the danger to a certain extent in order to be prepared for the danger that may suddenly arise one day.
I also think that peaceful reunification between South Korea and North Korea is difficult. Dictatorships are attractive to many powerful people, and it is unlikely that they will voluntarily give them up, and history has shown that dictatorships are rarely overthrown directly from the outside; they are always overthrown by change and revolution from within. In light of this, we believe that leafleting North Korea will have a significant impact on creating conscious change within the country’s citizens. Despite the fact that North Korean citizens have been thoroughly brainwashed from a young age, human nature always has a longing for freedom. This is evident in the current trend of North Koreans watching South Korean dramas and movies without the knowledge of the government and using devices such as mini-radios smuggled in from China to listen to outside news. North Korean citizens are more inclined to have a free culture and diverse consciousness rather than a decadent North Korean system. Under these circumstances, the leafleting of North Korea will be a great inspiration for some of the revolutionary minds among North Koreans, like the few revolutionaries in South Korea during the Japanese occupation, and provide an important opportunity to overthrow the North Korean regime.
