This is great news for those of us who think changes within North Korea can happen if the US begins to fight the information war within the country:
The U.S. budget for fiscal year 2009 announced Monday allots US$699 million for international broadcasting into countries like North Korea and adds $88.8 million to an Army program that includes support of land combat power on the Korean Peninsula.
The budget for the State Department requests $699 million for the Broadcasting Board of Governors to "provide accurate and objective news and information about the United States."
The broadcast will be made through television, radio and the Internet "throughout the Middle East and to people living under tyranny in North Korea, Burma, Iran and Cuba," according to the budget summary. [Yonhap]
Radio is going to be the big information medium for North Korea because as we have seen with a number of North Korean refugees, they defected after listening to radio broadcasts from illegal radios. Besides finally funding radio broadcasts to fight an information war against North Korea, the incoming Lee Myung-bak government is prepared to conduct contingency planning with USFK in case of internal unrest in North Korea:
The Defense Ministry is planning to create a joint plan with the United States to cope with possible internal unrest in North Korea after the Lee Myung-bak administration comes into office.
According to military sources, the ministry reported last month a US-Korea joint plan to the transition committee in preparation for possible contingencies in North Korea from March to the end of this year.
[….]Â
“The current administration was too conscious of North Korea to review contingency plans thoroughly. With the new administration taking office, efforts to strengthen the US-ROK cooperation will be intensified in an attempt to recover the alliance between the two countries,†said a military source. [Donga Ilbo]
It is really amazing it has taken this long to finally begin contingency planning in case of a North Korean collapse, but at least it is finally beginning to happen. More details over at One Free Korea.
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8:53 am on February 6th, 2008 1
If there was a collapse of North Korea, I think we would see a swoop in by the Chinese armed forces before any US or ROK action. The Chinese would then declare how they’ve arrived to help their former client state.
Sources have reported defections by North Korean generals to the Chinese, these individuals would be used as heads of a puppet state. China has its eye on Korea and what starts as a humanitarian effort will become a reunification of a lost province.
10:30 am on February 6th, 2008 2
That is why a post-collapse plan by South Korea is critical. The ROK Army needs to be prepared to quickly move across the border and occupy the country before the Chinese have a chance to do so themselves.
The Chinese biggest concern is stability and if the regime collapses and it sees millions of refugees coming their way they will intervene. If the ROK Army can move into there and control things before the Chinese, it takes away the Chinese excuse of deploying into NK for humanitarian reasons and giving them an opportunity to establish a Burma style puppet state which is just Juche-lite.
Fighting the information war inside North Korea before the regime collapses is part of this strategy. The people in North Korea need to see South Korea as the better option than being occupied by the Chinese. The elites in North Korea would probably prefer Chinese puppet state status to rejoining South Korea along with probably many people in the general public. This needs to change and that is why fighting the information war is critical.
8:19 pm on February 6th, 2008 3
Such a plan was bad for ch’emyon, kinda like the Lance missile.
6:59 am on February 7th, 2008 4
It may be bad for ch’emyon but it is something that needs to be done and it is good to see that Lee Myung-bak government at least by appearance is preparing to actually do some contingency planning with USFK.
10:04 am on February 16th, 2008 5
[...] to defect after listening to these broadcasts. In a good sign that htRecently the US has agreed to increase radio broadcasts into the country to fight this information war. A sign of how concerned the North Korean regime [...]
11:03 am on March 17th, 2008 6
[...] in February the US government budgeted more money to fund increased radio broadcasts into North Korea and now the increased broadcasting is becoming a [...]