By The South Korean government has announced their response to the sinking of the ROK naval vessel by the North Koreans and fortunately many of the punitive actions being taken by the ROK matches the recommendations I offered. To echo One Free Korea, what I was really glad to see is that the South Korean government has decided to fight the information war against the North Koreans by supporting the balloon launches:
As part of its propaganda offensive, South Korea’s military resumed radio broadcasts airing Western music, news and comparisons between the South and North Korean political and economic situation late Monday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military also planned to launch propaganda leaflets by balloon and other methods on Tuesday night to inform North Koreans about the ship sinking. [Associated Press]
I have long been an advocate of increasing radio broadcasts into North Korea in order to begin fighting the information war within the country. Radio broadcasts serve as a means to counter all the anti-US propaganda that North Koreans are fed on a daily basis and the effectiveness of these radio broadcasts can be proven by how some North Korean defectors, such as Kang Chol-hwan decided to defect after listening to a broadcast from South Korea.
These defector radio stations are already receiving funding from the US and European Union, but just imagine what a statement it would make if the Obama administration in response to the recent North Korea missile test decided to fund 24 hour programming for one of these defector radio stations which not operate mostly only 8-12 hours a day?
The balloon launches by North Korean defector groups are also very effective to fight the information war within North Korea with considering the angry reactions in the past from the North Korean regime to stop them. Heck just last month the North Koreans were implying violence to stop these balloon launches. These balloons have leaflets that include US dollar bills and Chinese Yuan to entice North Koreans to read, which is only further eroding the regime ideology among its people.
The anger from the North Korean regime has been so intense that they even mobilized their communist fifth column within South Korea to stop the balloon launches. That is when my all-time favorite North Korean defector activist, Park Sang-hak made this comment about the leftist groups that assaulted him while trying to launch the balloons:
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.
Anyway both the radio broadcasts and the balloon launches are effective ways to fight the information war inside of North Korea, which is where the real battle lies to shatter the regime ideology. I highly recommend that everyone read what One Free Korea wrote in regards to fighting the information war within North Korea by smuggling in subversive media.
2:04 am on May 26th, 2010 1
I don't believe that such balloons will have the effect hoped for because few if any North Korean people will trust them. To explain how I mean, there is a large Korean population in Osaka who are descended from those who fled Jeju to escape the Americans in 1948. They can easily see anti-communist messages and they have South Korean passports but in national politics, they still identify with the DPRK and many even try to send money to the North. One of these even tried to kill a Southern dictator and killed the dictator wife instead!
2:37 am on May 26th, 2010 2
Why don't the South Korean leftist groups send their own balloons over the DMZ touting reunification? I'm sure the North Koreans would enjoy reading leftist propaganda for a change, combined with a coupon for free Choco Pies at a Seoul supermarket chain.
It just makes me giggle when I see two South Koreans vehemently arguing about the concept of unity. It's like Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom fighting over a rebound;
SAME TEAM!!
3:28 am on May 26th, 2010 3
I mentioned before that I feel the North is much more fragile within than it lets on, and the South knows just what pixie sticks to pull to bring its collapse.
Balloons and radio broadcasts are just so 1970's. There is probably also an digital information infrastructure up there that can be taped into to cause movement.
Come on. Let's get the show over with. Pull the damn sticks.
3:43 am on May 26th, 2010 4
I donated to Free North Korea here
http://www.nkfreedom.org/index.php?id=4
8:59 am on May 26th, 2010 5
The so called leftists (or liberals) in ROK are not what claim to be. IMO they are just closet communists, with a core group of them being funded/controlled directly by NK.
Anyone remember how East Germany had planted 40,000 spies in West Germany during the cold war? I expect nothing less from the NK leadership.
10:27 am on May 26th, 2010 6
It's so funny, any time a leftists uses the word "Unification" what they really mean is unification under North Korea.
11:55 am on May 26th, 2010 7
"The so called leftists (or liberals) in ROK are not what claim to be. IMO they are just closet communists, with a core group of them being funded/controlled directly by NK."
Absolutely correct!
"It’s so funny, any time a leftists uses the word “Unification” what they really mean is unification under North Korea."
Also correct.
These are fifth column communist sympathizer group that have been orchestrated by NK agents & funding.
They constantly accuse those who oppose them of being "anti-unification". It's a complete BS tactic used to tey and scare others into 'getting in line'.
It's far past time for real investigations into these groups to find out who is really pulling the strings and throw some of their asses in prison for treason!
As for the balloons and transmissions, it may seem antiquated, but reports from defectors have shown that they do work.
12:12 pm on May 26th, 2010 8
Rei, I know you are actually KoreaTeacher but if you abide by the comments policy I will approve your comment like I did with this one.
12:45 pm on May 26th, 2010 9
I doubt it. North Korea is so far behind, there isn't much a a digital infrastructure that could be used except for TV and radio, and TV sets and radios in North Korea are locked into one station before being sold. But, some people do unlock them in order to listen to South Korean broadcasts.
1:03 pm on May 26th, 2010 10
I believe the internet term is 'pwned'
1:05 pm on May 26th, 2010 11
I donate to Daily NK via PayPal. Although I'm an impoverished grad student on a measly scholarship, it's still a lot more than what 99% of the North Korean population survive on.
1:25 pm on May 26th, 2010 12
'Fled the Americans in 1948", Oh My God you are hoplessly brainwashed and continue to demonstrate logic skills that are a crime against teaching.
The vast majority of the Choson Soren were re-located to Japan during the Sino-Japanese conflict and WWII to provide manpower for Japanese manufacturing. After the war they had limited transporation capabilities and the Communists restricted movement home. Their original hometowns were for the most part in North Korea.
Without a signifant ground force US or South Korean, anyone who wanted to go north was free to walk there, or since it took a boat to get to Japan they would have just sailed to North Korea which you so adore and love.
The flight which you seem to be oblivious to was the one going from North to South as even communists were rounded up in the North for not being part of Kim Il Sung's faction. All of them at one point or another were captured by the Japanese and signed confessions which KIS used to discredit them.
Again supposed Teacher, read a book or two. I weep for your children.
9:13 pm on May 26th, 2010 13
Why are the balloons tubular instead of spherical? A sphere has more volume for a given surface, so they'd be more buoyant.
10:28 pm on May 26th, 2010 14
Maybe a tubular one is harder to shoot down. They sure intended them to be as transparent as possible so they would be harder to see.
1:48 am on May 27th, 2010 15
"Why are the balloons tubular"
I bet it has something to do with fabrication. A tube can be made from plastic sheeting with one seam… or pre-manufactured tubing is likely available.
I just looked up a better photo and it seems to confirm this… pre-manufactured tubing seems to be tied at each end.
Cheap and easy.
I wonder how they time the leaflet drops.
12:31 pm on May 27th, 2010 16
Why are the balloons tubular instead of spherical? A sphere has more volume for a given surface, so they'd be more buoyant.
3:52 pm on May 27th, 2010 17
Also, spheres tend to echo more…
…much like comment 8 and 10.
4:18 pm on May 27th, 2010 18
"Chosen Soren" is not a polite term and you should not use it. Also, you are right that some of the Korean in Japan came before Ii Syngman, 2 MB for instance was born in Japan, but there is a very large populations of Koreans, especially in Osaka, who come from Jeju where they fled the Jeju massacre. You are very silly to say that it would be easy to flee from Jeju to the North. Jeju is an Island in the far South. The only escape was by boat and the boats were going to Japan. In fact, until recent Japanese government interference, money from Japanese Koreans was a major source of exchange for the North.
You should read about the Jeju massacre before you write such foolish things. Some people want to learn and others just want to have their prejudices confirmed. You belong to the second group.
4:22 pm on May 27th, 2010 19
You are absolutely wrong! The leader of Korean democracy was a Southern, Christian, Social Democrat. I am glad that you were honest enough to say IMO instead of saying that you knew any facts to support your speculations.
4:24 pm on May 27th, 2010 20
You are very foolish to imagine that the only reason why someone would want to have a United Korea is that he is a communist. If your country was divided, you would feel the same.
7:23 pm on May 27th, 2010 21
I thin think the point that Rei was making was that having access to information doesn't automatically make someone anti-North Korean. I know a little about the topic and if you type "Koreans in Japan" into wikipedia, you can find a lot of information about pro DPRK Japanese Koreans who have a very powerful organization called the Chongryon which runs schools and even sends people to the the DPRK parliament. Also, if you do some reading, you will find that i the past, the DPRK was able to kidnap people and get away with it because there were so many people who defected to the North that no one realized what was going on. This sounds ludicrous now but it's worth remembering that the North used to have a higher GNP than the South. I remember reading somewhere that the South actually pays a $20,000 stipend to North Koreans who defect. Apparently. this is enough of an incentive that the government actually checks to verify that the people in question are really from the DPRK rather than being Chinese posing as Koreans to get the stipend.
1:46 am on May 28th, 2010 22
They apply some kind of chemical that burns through the plastic covering so that they can roughly time where the leaflets will drop. They can roughly time it so that they drop in 3 areas, DMZ, north of DMZ and just north of PyongYang.
1:48 am on May 28th, 2010 23
REI, just admit it. Many of so called liberals in SK are really NK sympathizers at best, at worst spies for NK.
You can't deny a historical fact about West and East Germany.
1:52 am on May 28th, 2010 24
You forgot to mention the assassin, Japanese-born North Korean sympathizer, killed wife of President Park Jung Hee in 1974.
1974!
1:56 am on May 28th, 2010 25
GI Korea thanks for pointing that out.
REI, if such information will not have much effect in NK, than why don't NK leaders open up their country? What are they afraid of?
1:59 am on May 28th, 2010 26
Sure I want unified Korea. Just make sure Kim Jung Il pays for the crime he committed against the humanity.
2:11 am on May 28th, 2010 27
Germany and Korea are NOT the same country! You just have an emotion and make assumptions on the emotional basis. In actual reality, Koreans from the Social Democratic movement even avoid the use of the word "Choson" which is associated with the North. What are saying is like saying that Italy is the same thing as Mexico because both are Catholic
2:22 am on May 28th, 2010 28
Bak Chung He was an evil dictator who was an officer for the Imperial Japanese during the World War II. He even betrayed his homeland by taking the Japanese name of Okamoto Minoru!
2:28 am on May 28th, 2010 29
It would be necessary to revoke the immunity given to the rightists for their crimes under the dictatorship before any talk of "paying for crimes" can begin. In addition, your own government should answer for its unprovoked invasions and use of torture and assassinations and of course, its massacres of civilians.
5:04 am on May 28th, 2010 30
"They apply some kind of chemical that burns through the plastic covering so that they can roughly time where the leaflets will drop."
Right on.
Back in the day, they used slow-burning fuse stitched through the containing bags.
There are volumes of research available from WWI and WWII about distribution patterns and methods… all very interesting.
Now-a-days, with cheap GPS, it would be quite easy to turn one of those tubes on its side, make a blimp and, with $50 in hardware, make a powered UAV that could target a very specific location… and, depending on wind, possibly return home for another load.
While it might be illegal to claim so, for show-off novelty purposes, someone might have built something similar to position a wireless video camera near the window of a room where Filipina juicies in Songtan sometimes had few clothes on.
As a side note, someone, for the Man, might also have designed a system with a micro wireless video camera, an IR laser and a single-shot .22 with backup poison in the hollowpoint… all on a gyroscopically-controlled platform that mounts on a consumer-grade remote control helicopter, Styrofoam mono-wing or small RC blimp…
…so don't ever think they can't get you.
I'm fascinated with the propaganda balloons… and I sure would like to see the small amount of money and effort it would take to make them much, much smarter and more effective.
5:33 am on May 28th, 2010 31
NK hates the leaflets the most. NK leaders control NK with control of information.
7:32 am on May 28th, 2010 32
Somebody mentioned leaflets coming from the north…this used to happen because I remember leaflet collection boxes at various locations around post on Camp Casey and that we were told if you were caught with NK propaganda, there'd be trouble. The customs guys even used to rifle through your papers when they packed out your HHG to make sure you weren't schlepping any leaflets outta there…
10:41 am on May 28th, 2010 33
So who's evil more? President Park of SK or Dear Leader Kim of NK?
11:32 am on May 28th, 2010 34
Of course the North Koreans could retaliate by restarting Radio Pyongyang. They may need to find a new voice because the one they used in the '70s might be a bit creaky now.
They almost always used a female for the English language broadcasts, ala. Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hannah. I guess Asians think it is more humiliating to Americans to be insulted by females. We actually found her entertaining because she said the most absurd things; kind of like Baghdad Bob.
I remember hearing the North Korean broadcasts while doing radio checks on OV-10 aircraft here. The frequency that stuck in my head was 9977 Hz. The planes had an HF radio system that both received and transmitted. However, you were never 'authorized' to transmit on anyone's radio broadcast frequency.
12:01 pm on May 28th, 2010 35
You've GOT to be KIDDING ME! There is no comparison of what the SK government did years ago to the ONGOING imprisonment of NK citizens in gulags for simply refusing to fall in line with KJI or his nut-job ideologies. You know, Rei – when I see posts like this, I just want to remind you that you and your packs of like-minded crazies are free to go north, and cross the border to live in the 'people's paradise' if you really believe it is so great up there. At least you have that freedom while the citizens of NK don't, imprisoned withing their own country by their own government, shot if caught trying to leave, and forcibly repatriated if caught by the Chinese police…
2:13 pm on May 28th, 2010 36
Which Kim? The one who led the anti-Japanese military resistance or the one who tried to make peace with the USA and the South before Bill Clinton broke the deal for light-water reactors?
2:20 pm on May 28th, 2010 37
According to eh same LANCET group that produced the estimates of casualties for Bosnia, Sudan, and so on, the USA's invasion of Iraq led to a death toll in the millions. Furthermore, even before that, the American-forced UN embargo caused enormous suffering. Also, the USA's deception in promising the North light-water reactors but not delivering them contributed to the suffering there. Finally, it is clear that you know very little about either the North or the History of the Southern dictatorship so I will leave that out. My belief is that justice must not be selective or else it is not really justice at all.