By North Korea has been complaining for months about the balloons filled with anti-Kim Jong-il propaganda leaflets that a coalition of North Korean defector, Christian, abductee, and Christian groups have been sending over the DMZ and into North Korea. North Korea has even threatened war over the leaflets showing how irritated the regime is with the leaflets which is probably a sign the leaflets are having its desired effect of undermining the regime. Well now the usual suspects have mobilized to try and stop these groups from sending their leaflets into North Korea:
South Korean groups sent propaganda leaflets critical of North Korea over the strictly controlled Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday as they scuffled with liberal activists who desperately tried to stop the launch.
The groups sent off a large balloon carrying 10,000 leaflets at a spot near the west coast, a day after North Korea tightened border traffic with South Korea in an initial retaliatory step against Seoul’s hardline policy toward Pyongyang.
The groups had prepared ten balloons to carry 100,000 leaflets but managed to send just one after clashing with dozens of liberal activists looking to prevent further damage to inter-Korean relations. The opposing members stole the remaining leaflets from a truck parked nearby.
One activist was hospitalized and another was taken into police custody, according to police officials.
Rarely seen since the Cold War, leaflets have recently emerged as a divisive issue between the two Koreas. Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have worsened since the launch of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in February. (…)
North Korea has repeatedly threatened to cut all ties with Seoul if it fails to stop the conservative activists from sending the leaflets. Seoul also asked them to stop in order not to further enrage the North.
Pyongyang has mobilized soldiers en mass in a campaign to collect leaflets that have fallen on western coastal towns near the border, Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported earlier in the day, citing Chinese sources well-informed on North Korea.
Experts say the leaflets have struck a nerve because they often contain information on the 66-year-old Kim’s reported health problems, of which most North Koreans are likely unaware. (…)
Many of the leaflets have repeatedly criticized Kim for enjoying a lavish life while his people suffering from chronic food shortages, and urge North Koreans to rise up against the “killer whose death is approaching.”
The leaflets sometimes are mixed with U.S. dollar bills or Chinese yuan notes to entice North Koreans to pick them up. In the impoverished nation, one can live a month on one dollar, according to Park Sang-hak, a North Korea defector whose group has been sending the leaflets for about four years. [Yonhap]
It is interesting that soldiers are having to scour the countryside to look for balloons because it means the regime does not trust the population to turn in the leaflets in fear they may actually read them.
There is a great article in the Washington Post that tells more about one of the leaders sending out these propaganda leaflets. Park Sang-hak is a North Korean defector that actually worked in a propaganda department for North Korea before defecting. His hatred of Kim Jong-il is motivated by the fact his two uncles were killed and his fiance’ sexually abused because of his defection. Here is what Park had to say about the leftist groups that assaulted him:
It took more than an hour of pushing and shoving, and the help of a phalanx of South Korean policemen, before Park and others could launch a single balloon.
After it had soared into a cloudless sky and was carried north by the breeze, Park taunted his adversaries.
“You are the running dogs of Kim Jong Il!” he shouted. “You are trash!”
“You are afraid of unification!” they shouted back.
Park replied, “I am going to launch balloons every day, if the weather permits.”
Ironically if anyone is anti-unification it is the leftist groups that demand the South Korean government continue to subsidize Kim Jong-il’s lifestyle. I think Park would do well to contact some of the veteran organizations that protected the MacArthur Statue in Incheon when these leftists groups tried to tear it down a few years back. I’m sure there is nothing more satisfying for some of these retired ROK Marine Corps types then getting the chance to bash some of these leftist groups heads in.
4:54 am on December 3rd, 2008 1
I love how the insurgents in South Korea support the right to protest in Seoul, but not in Pyongyang. We have to respect their right to totalitarianism, right?
7:40 am on December 3rd, 2008 2
I thought the Voice of America article I read this morning had some issues – especially the headline:
"N. Korea Critics Clash with Peace Groups in South Over Leaflets"
Peace groups?!
I guess that makes the others warmongers?
The article did use the label "pro-North" – but especially the last couple of paragraphs seemed to indicate why that headline was attached to it and where the reporter's mind lay.
10:01 am on December 3rd, 2008 3
I personally cannot wait for the Kim regime to collapse just to see how these so-called leftists pivot on this issue once the full horror of the situation is revealed. Or maybe they won’t, and the joy of reunification will cause all of this to go down the memory hole rather than discrediting them forever.
2:26 pm on December 3rd, 2008 4
Well said, Knickerbocker.
2:59 pm on December 3rd, 2008 5
Looks like they are just funneling money to the Norks. No better then KDJ.
6:46 pm on December 3rd, 2008 6
[...] George Washington looks out from inside a balloon full of pamphlets sent to North Korea by an organization in South Korea. Read more at Rok Drop. [...]
7:28 pm on December 3rd, 2008 7
[...] Korean human rights activist Park Sang-hak wasn’t lying, he was back out there today sending up his propaganda balloons into North Korea: Civic groups fly [...]
2:36 pm on December 4th, 2008 8
"I love how the insurgents in South Korea support the right to protest in Seoul, but not in Pyongyang."
The sacred blood of the Minjok trumps all else.
11:57 am on December 5th, 2008 9
[...] know why I even bother but if anyone had any doubts on who the the leftist activists are that scuffled with the activist group releasing balloons filled with anti-Kim Jong-il propaganda leaflets this [...]
3:23 pm on December 29th, 2008 10
[...] looks like Park Sang-hak and his colleagues are now back in action [...]
5:14 pm on May 31st, 2010 11
From the WaPo article:
> Park kicked one of the counter-protesters squarely in the head … sounded like a bat whacking a hardball.
> He spat on several others who were trying to rip apart bags of leaflets.
> He pulled a tear-gas revolver from his jacket …
This guy has what Colbert would call "muchos huevos grandes" – some kind titanium balls dipped in gold.
http://www.nofactzone.net/2008/02/15/stephen-colb…
I wish there was a way to support him without getting the VISA revoked.
6:20 pm on May 31st, 2010 12
SHITE looks likes the leftists in Korea are on the same page as the leftist here is The U.S.. Don't Get me wrong I love Dr. Suess but hey its cartoons and children's books. One sobering way for them to learn would be to allow them to trade places with some of the homeys up North. Lock, Stock and Barrel of Kimchi.
9:23 pm on May 31st, 2010 13
It is wrong for you to call people who suffered in ways that you can only imagine for the cause of democracy "insurgents." For many years, the left was victimized by the dictatorship while one of the big stars in the Grand National Party is the daughter of Bak Chung Hee (the assassinated dictator who was a Japanese officer during World War 2). The point is that many Koreans want peace and unification since unification under a democratic constitution would end the suffering of the Northern people while making the South stronger and more self-sufficient. Many people also realize that it is counter-productive to send balloons saying "You suck!" over the DMZ since this will only increase hostility and make unification harder to achieve. You should read more before you judge people in the South who suffered for the great cause of democracy.
12:50 am on June 1st, 2010 14
NK insurgents wish they had the injustice of the South. None of them are alive, all murdered and tortured to death with their families. KT, you are swine.
5:13 pm on June 1st, 2010 15
Korean Teacher, Who are you to spout that folks should know what they are talking about when you don't know the folks ? You just don't like the words. Whether your a booked teacher or have read allot of Korean History your judgment passing here is very like the leftist movement of these days. Not the days you are referring to but these days. Folks in North Korea do not even know there are people out here that want to help them . How could they know that when they haven't a clue as to what human rights are. From what I have seen and heard that is what these leaflets are about. Basic human rights . They have to rise against their government from within before folks from outside can do much. Now the average North Korean Citizen falls on their face with fear at the mere picture of their leader. These folks need to know it will be worth fighting for and even dieing For. I don't say that with a light heart as do not wish to see any Koreans die for war or any other folks for that matter but sometimes the human condition needs a change. NK is stale as it is stalemated. They have been through enough turmoil but they must finish this last test to gain their complete country back and come back into their former glory that was say before the last Joesan period. I know that is a bit extreme as that takes us back what 360 years or there about. Before Neo Confucianism but they need to get North Korean people the basic human freedoms before they can really become whole again. How do you do that. I don't know but I have no problem with anyone telling them the truth with leaflets. When you say that will only cause more separation. Don't you have the same ear as a North Korean leader as it their leaders that truly do not want the leaflets, and the leaflets are not telling them they suck. They are telling the people the government that holds them down is wrong and that they do have rights as humans. Anyway that is definitely the way I took it. The only ones that would find this counter productive are those who suck. Lets face it they have had their time at sucking it is well time some folks ( North Korean Citizens) were able to stand and grow. There family in the South is doing alright.
5:48 pm on March 3rd, 2011 16
Korea Teacher #13, Lenin had a term for people like you. The term is "useful idiots". So keeping the people of NK ignorant about the truth in the world is a good idea? So sharing the truth of the world with the people of NK is increasing hostility? Are you saying that the NK regimes propaganda about SK & the US is not hostile, that it is full of love? Why don't you emigrate to the land of good & plenty? I hope you can find a lot of "all you can eat buffets" there. I feel sorry for your students.