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 October 14, 2008, 11:57:26 AM
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NKorea defectors drop leaflets condemning leaderBy KWANG-TAE KIM – 9 hours ago, 14 October 2008YEONGJONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — The North Korean trembled when he spotted the leaflet that had fluttered down from a balloon dispatched from the South. He snatched it, stuffed it into his pocket and ran to the bathroom to read it. Park Sang-hak says he read that slip of vinyl — which bragged about the good life North Korean defectors were enjoying in South Korea — more than 15 times in disbelief. Fifteen years later, Park is on the other side of the border. He defected to South Korea in 1999 and now helps launch propaganda balloons filled with leaflets denouncing the Stalinist regime. The 40-foot balloons — fueled by hydrogen and shaped like missiles — are the most direct way to reach people living in one of the world's most isolated nations. Few North Koreans have access to cell phones or the Internet, and millions have no way of getting in contact with relatives living in South Korea. For decades, the rival Koreas waged a fierce ideological battle using leaflets, loudspeakers and radio broadcasts across the heavily fortified border. At the height of the propoganda war, South Korea's military loudspeakers blared propaganda 20 hours a day, according to an official from the psychological unit of the South Korean army. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to media. But then the two Koreas embarked on a path to reconciliation that led to the first landmark summit between their leaders in 2000. They agreed in 2004 to end the propaganda. Still, activists and defectors continue to send balloons filled with leaflets across the border, despite pleas from Seoul to stop at a time when inter-Korean relations are at their lowest point in years. The activists hope to spark a rebellion to overthrow Kim Jong Il. Last week, the North threatened to expel South Koreans working at two joint projects north of the border and warned of "new military clashes" if leaflets criticizing Kim — an illegal offense in North Korea — continue. South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said there are no legal grounds for prosecuting those who send leaflets, citing freedom of expression. Park, 40, says he's an ardent advocate of the propaganda campaigns. "I am trying to tell the truth to North Koreans who do not even know they are living under dictatorship," Park said Friday after releasing a balloon from a small fishing boat off Korea's west coast on the 63rd anniversary of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party. The black-and-white leaflets urge North Koreans to rise up against Kim Jong Il. "Kim Jong Il is the most vicious dictator and murderer of the 21st century, not the sun of the 21st century," the flyer reads. "Let us end Kim Jong Il's hereditary military dictatorship and liberate North Koreans." Also featured on the leaflet: a diagram of Kim's alleged romantic relationships, including his wife and eight other women and their children — a tactic designed to encourage traditional North Koreans to question their leader's morals. The organizers did not say where they the obtained information. Some leaflets contain $1 bills or 10-yuan notes from China (worth $1.50) — an amount believed to surpass the average monthly wage in North Korea. To prevent people from reading the leaflets, Pyongyang warns citizens: "If you pick up this pamphlet, it will burn your hands," said Suzanne Scholte, chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition in the U.S., citing accounts from North Koreans who defected to the South last month. Her group helped finance the launch of 10 balloons Friday. "There is nothing more powerful than North Koreans living in freedom reaching out to North Koreans living in slavery," said Scholte, who received the Seoul Peace Prize earlier in the week. One defector, writer Kang Chol-hwan, said the leaflets serve as a wake-up call to North Koreans who are brainwashed to believe they live in a paradise. "South Korea's leaflets show North Koreans that they can live well in the South," Kang said. "Leaflets and outside radio programs together are what prompted me to defect to the South" in 1992. In an interesting twist, it was a photo of Kang that was printed on the very first leaflet Park Sang-hak saw and read furtively in 1993. Park says he had been taught at school that Kang and another man pictured on the leaflet were executed after being caught trying to flee the North. But the photo on that leaflet showed that Kang, who later wrote a best-selling memoir, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" about his childhood in a North Korean prison camp, was alive and well in South Korea. "I was so shocked," Park said. "I knew that the Workers' Party lied, but how could they have gone that far?" Now, Park says he and the two fellow defectors pictured on that leaflet are all South Korean citizens — and good friends. Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSpRmSjLRYsXbjm11kzpeWjRJGCAD93Q4A800  
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October 27, 2008, 06:48:24 PM
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North Korea demands end to propaganda leafletsBy HYUNG-JIN KIM – 27 October 2008SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Monday to expel South Koreans working in the North if Seoul does not prevent activists from dropping propaganda leaflets across the border, a South Korean defense official said. Military officers made the demand to their South Korean counterparts during a brief, 20-minute meeting at the border, the second official meeting between the rival Koreas since the North broke off relations in February. The North Koreans repeated a threat made during talks earlier in the month to expel South Koreans working at two joint reconciliation projects in the North if the leafletting does not stop, said Col. Lee Sang-cheol, head of the Defense Ministry's North Korea department. The joint projects are an industrial park in the border city of Kaesong and a resort at scenic Diamond Mountain. The Koreas agreed in 2004 to end decades of propaganda warfare involving leaflets, loudspeakers and radio broadcasts. However, activists in South Korea continue to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, and the South Korean government cites freedom of speech in its refusal to stop them. South Korean military officers told their counterparts from the North on Monday that the government has appealed to activists to refrain from sending leaflets, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. South Korean officials also "strongly" urged the North to stop slandering South Korean President Lee Myung-bak though its state media, the ministry said. Still, activists pushed ahead with their propaganda campaign on Monday, sending helium balloons filled with about 40,000 leaflets denouncing North Korea's authoritarian leader, Kim Jong Il, across the border from the east coast. Some of the leaflets mentioned Kim's reported health troubles, and called for the North Korean people to rise up against his iron-fist rule, according to activist Choi Sung-yong. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery, but the North has denied there is anything wrong with the 66-year-old leader. Choi said his group would send another 60,000 leaflets by balloons later Monday from an island off the west coast. An association of South Korean companies operating in the Kaesong complex said it has written activists asking them to stop sending the leaflets, saying the propaganda campaign could jeopardize their businesses. "We're having harder time since the leaflet issue came out," Lee In-dong, an official at the Cooperation of Kaesong Industrial Council, said Monday. "Many foreign buyers are canceling orders." The complex combines South Korean technology and management expertise with cheap North Korean labor. Some 84 South Korean firms operate in the zone, employing about 35,000 North Korean workers. During Monday's talks, military officers also discussed improving communication between the countries, South Korea's Defense Ministry said. The two Koreas are linked by nine military hot lines but some are now out of service for technical reasons, the ministry said. The two Koreas technically remain at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The nation is divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. The North suspended reconciliation talks with the South after President Lee took office, and earlier this month warned that it would sever remaining relations unless South Korea abandons what it calls a policy of "reckless confrontation." Both military teams of four were headed by a lieutenant colonel-level officer. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gIjzWbaAlX8_GZkkiSeC4YNcQh1gD942OJ180 
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October 28, 2008, 10:19:25 AM
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NKorea threatens to turn South into 'debris'Updated October 28, 2008 22:08:04South Korean activists release balloon-carried leaflets close to the border with the North. [AFP] North Korea is threatening to turn South Korea into 'debris' unless it stops activists sending anti-North propaganda leaflets across the border. North Asia correspondent Shane McLeod reports that activists from the South have been sending the leaflets into North Korea attached to balloons. But recent leaflets speculating on the health of the North's leader Kim Jong Il have prompted an angry response from Pyongyang. The North's military used cross-border military talks to warn the South it would strike pre-emptively and reduce South Korea to 'debris' in a 'just war'. Separately, Japan's Prime Minister says his government has information that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is in hospital. Taro Aso says the 66-year-old appears still capable of making decisions, despite reports earlier this year he may have suffered a stroke. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2403919.htm?tab=latest
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November 02, 2008, 05:31:00 PM
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Der Chef here is more on the NKorea leaflet battle from 'The Korea Times' ...Impact of Leaflet Operations By Tong Kim November 2, 2008 The North Korean People's Army (KPA) has strongly reacted to balloon-born leaflets from the South dropping on their side across from the Demilitarized Zone. The mode of leaflet dissemination and its content readily remind me of the psychological warfare campaign that the United Nations Command (UNC) in Korea aggressively conducted in the mid 1960s. The difference now is it's led by a small, determined group of North Korean defectors. In protest, the KPA's representative has met twice in October with his ROK Army counterpart at working level meetings of the inter-Korean military talks, demanding that the South Korean government stop the civic organization's leaflet operations. These propaganda leaflets demonize North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a ``devilish killer'' and effectively exploit the North's economic vulnerability. The North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) ― through which North Korean propagandists often vilify President Lee Myung-bak as a ``national traitor'' ― have issued a consistent warning several times already that if the leaflet dissemination does not stop, the North may have to suspend the joint project at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. The North Koreans do not always make good on their word, but their warnings reflect their views on the prospect of inter-Korean relations. The North Koreans are silent about their bellicose verbal attacks on President Lee and conservative groups in the South. Psychological warfare has resumed between the propagandists in Pyongyang and the North Korean defectors in Seoul, who Pyongyang believes to be acting with the support of the government of the South. The revival of mutual slander and psychological operations are clearly in violation of the agreement of its suspension in the 1992 Basic North-South Agreement, its confirmation in the 2000 inter-Korean summit agreement and a specific agreement by the inter-Korean military generals meeting in June 2004 to cease all leaflet and loudspeaker operations in the DMZ, Speaking of the efficacy of leaflet operations, the KPA's reaction thus far is a good measurement of feedback. The leaflet designers are people who lived in the North and are well aware of the psychological vulnerabilities of their target audience ― food and energy shortages are probably the most real source of the targets' dissatisfaction. The North Korean defectors also know the language of the target audience ― terms and spellings that are different from those that are used in the South. In the 1960s I was in charge of leaflet production for the UNC, which was interested in leaflet operations because of the difficulty of reaching North Koreans by broadcasts as their radios were all fixed to receive North Korean broadcasts only, and not many radios capable of receiving broadcast on short wave were available in the North. Psychological operations were not prohibited under the Armistice Agreement of 1953. Today there are about 14,000 North Korean defectors living in the South. But in those days there were only a few dozen people who came to the South after the end of the Korean War. They included KPA defectors crossing over the DMZ and North Korean spies who either surrendered or were captured after infiltration. We took prototype leaflets ― complete with written and graphic messages ― to a panel of North Korean defectors and agents to hear how they would react to those leaflets if they had been still in the North. Their contributions were reflected in the final leaflet product. This pre-test was an integral part of strategic leaflet production along with a target analysis based on available intelligence and a thematic exploitation of identifiable target vulnerabilities. In those days, any direct attack on Kim Il-sung was deemed to be counterproductive. Contrary to Western views, we found that Kim Il-sung was regarded by the people in the North truly as a ``great leader.'' This was a core belief of the North Koreans at the time. So instead, we tried to stress the benefits of freedom and democracy to influence the attitude of our audience positively toward the South, while discrediting Pyongyang's political propaganda claims that South Korea was a ``puppet of U.S. imperialism'' and that South Koreans were struggling to survive under ``control of U.S. occupation.'' this was 40 years ago. As for the method of leaflet dissemination, the UNC utilized ``high altitude dissemination'' not ``leaflet bombs'' by which millions of leaflets are released from huge military aircraft flying over 30,000 feet in altitude along the DMZ. Leaflets traveled according to wind currents, reaching as far as Pyongyang. The most favorable weather conditions for high altitude dissemination were around the monsoon season in Korea, when strong winds blow towards the North. The best-traveling leaflets were approximately 3'' x 6.5'' in size and weighed 16lbs in total. The UNC was not directly involved in balloon operations, which were carried out by the ROK Army in addition to the ROK's loudspeaker broadcasts towards North Korean soldiers. Apparently, the defectors group is using an effective balloon method of leaflet drops, using helium and timed fuses. As the KCNA complained, their leaflets have reached the vast areas of Hwanghae Province and Gangwon Province along the DMZ, but their leaflet sizes ― 8.5'' x 11'' and 5'' x 7'' ― have the least effective dimensions for traveling. The question is whether we should go back to the old days of confrontation and malicious propaganda at a time when the political environment has changed so much on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere in the region. Competition between the North and the South has long been over. Pyongyang is reacting to inadvertent statements of South Korean officials ― including the defense minister who said ``we should not spoil Kim Jong-il'' by showing too much attention to his health conditions. Pyongyang is ratcheting up its belligerent reaction to Seoul's talk of OPLAN 5028 to prepare for a ``sudden collapse of'' or a ``possible coup'' against its regime, and the consequences of an incapacitated Kim Jong-il or his eventual absence. The KPA has always been sensitive to joint U.S.-ROK deterrent efforts ― either through combined military exercises, defense ministerial meetings, or the ROK's acquisition of new weapons, which is expected to increase with the recently upgraded status of South Korea to that of the NATO plus three nations. The KPA now says the ``South Korean war-hawks announced a preemptive strike as a basic mode of attack'' against the North, blustering that its own ``advanced preemptive strike capability, more powerful than nuclear weapons, would reduce the South to ashes.'' Seoul's Unification Ministry seems to try to move in the right direction by discouraging leaflet drops. It is time for both sides to stop mutual slander and for the defector group not to attack the North Korean leader directly. Suspension of leaflet operations and the resumption of tourism to Mt. Geumgang seem to be the first steps to reducing tension between the North and South. What's your take? Tong Kim is a research professor with the Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. He can be reached at tong.kim8@yahoo.com. Downloaded from http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/special_view.asp?newsIdx=33731&categoryCode=177 The link is slow to download.
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November 12, 2008, 04:29:25 PM
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From Times OnlineNovember 12, 2008 North Korea retaliates against South over leaflet air-drop by closing borderRichard Lloyd ParryRelations between the two Koreas deteriorated further today when the government of the North announced that it would close a land border with the South out of anger at the air-dropping of leaflets denouncing the totalitarian regime by human rights organisations. The complete closure of the crossing across the intensely fortified “demilitarized zone” (DMZ) would be a blow for one of the symbols of co-operation between the divided states, the joint industrial zone in the town of Kaesong, just inside North Korea. It is a further sign of the chill that has overtaken inter-Korean relations since the inauguration of the conservative Lee Myung Bak as South Korea's president at the beginning of this year. A report on the North's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, which announce the closure of the crossing from 1 December, said: “The south Korean puppet authorities should never forget that the present inter-Korean relations are at the crucial crossroads of existence and total severance.” A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, Kim Ho Nyoun, said: “We find it regrettable that the North has decided to take those measures. If the North carries them out, it would have a negative impact on what has been achieved in inter-Korean relations.” The official reason for the decision was South Korea's failure to honour an agreement from 2004 to desist from propaganda efforts across the DMZ. At the time, both sides removed giant billboards and loudspeakers that broadcast mutually hostile rhetoric. But recently South Koreas civic groups have taken to sending large hot-air balloons into the skies above the North laden with anti-Pyongyang leaflets. The state media threatened to reduce the South to “debris” if these “confrontational activities” were not stopped. “Such stand and attitude are leading to the grave, wanton violation of all the north-south agreements,” the Korean Central News Agency said. Some 1,600 employees of South Korea's Hyundai Corporation work in the Kaesong complex, a product of the opening up of relations between the two enemies after a summit meeting of their leaders in 2000. The South Koreans employ 32,000 North Koreans in simple manufacturing jobs for 60 dollars a month, money which is paid to them indirectly through the Pyongyang government, which is assumed to skim off a good deal of the money. The project represents a significant source of income for the North, and the fact that is appears prepared to sever this income is an indication of its anger. President Lee's two predecessors sought to engage with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, but the current president has adopted a much more detached policy, promising long-term economic aid only after Pyongyang has completely abandoned its nuclear weapons programme. North Korean indignation at such a suggestion has taken the form of personal invective against Mr Lee which is virulent even by its standards. The atmosphere became still worse in July when a middle-aged South Korean woman who was visiting another joint project, a tourist resort in the east of the country, was shot dead by North Korean soldiers after apparently wandering into a restricted zone. The Mount Kumgang resort, another Hyundai enterprise, was suspended soon after. To add to all this, South Korean analysts believe that Mr Kim, 67, has suffered at least one stroke in August which put him out of action for almost three months." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5138012.ece
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November 17, 2008, 06:22:54 AM
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Seoul Seeks Legal Action Against NGOs Sending Leaflets to N. KoreaThe Korea Times, Monday, November 17, 2008, 17:38,
By Kim Sue-young
Staff ReporterThe Ministry of Unification has sought to work out a legal measure to stop civic groups here from sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea, which has elevated tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang, a ministry official said Monday. The move comes as North Korea has kept calling for a halt to the sending of the leaflets, threatening to close down all overland passages and cut off direct telephone lines. "We have consistently called for civic organizations to refrain from this activity and are reviewing a range of ways,'' ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters, refusing to elaborate. The ministry has, for the most part, dealt with the anti-Pyongyang activity passively, noting that there were no legal grounds to stop or punish civic groups, which are mostly composed of North Korean defectors. A North Korean defectors' association and several other organizations sent helium-filled balloons to North Korea with tens of thousands of leaflets containing criticism of the North's dictatorship and rumors of its leader's illness from the West Sea in early October. The communist state warned in two rounds of working-level military talks that it might ``make a decisive decision'' if the groups continue. Earlier, Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong promised to make an effort to solve the leaflet issue in a meeting with representatives of companies operating in a joint industrial complex in the North Korean city of Gaeseong. The North's recent threat to restrict crossings through the inter-Korean border is expected to negatively affect the industrial site. However, the ministry will have difficulty finding any legal basis for action because existing laws have no provisions to control the groups' actions. A government official asking to remain anonymous said the government is checking whether the groups are violating any laws by using high-pressure gas to send up balloons and leaflets. In addition to the effort to improve icy relations by solving the flier issue, the ministry is seeking to resume a tour program to Mt. Geumgang, in the North. Tours to the scenic resort, which began exactly 10 years ago, have been suspended since a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier during a pre-dawn walk near the resort. The incident remains unresolved as North Korea refused to cooperate in on-site investigations, claiming the victim was in a restricted military zone. Kim said the government hopes to have talks to discuss ways to resume the tour program soon. But Pyongyang insisted that it will only restart the tour after the Oct. 4 inter-Korean agreement is implemented. North Korea has refused to resume inter-Korean dialogue, demanding the implementation of accords signed in inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007. According to the Korea Institute for National Unification, economic losses triggered by the four-month suspension are estimated at more than 100 billion won ($70.8 million). http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/11/116_34539.html
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November 18, 2008, 11:32:50 AM
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North Korea claims that the leaflets recently ballooned from the south are radioactive and will make anyone picking them up go blind! From The Daily NK newspaper: Be Careful, the Leaflets Are RadioactiveBy Bona Kim, Intern, The Daily NK
[2008-11-18 18:02 ] The North Korean authorities spread a rumor saying that the leaflets sent from South Korea by NGOs were radioactive and would make people go blind, according to the 5th edition of “NK In & Out,” a biweekly newsletter issued by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights (NKnet). North Korea has been threatening that if South Korea continues to send out the leaflets, then North Korea will cut off all bilateral ties. Now it seems as though the North Korean authorities are attempting to control the leaflets within the country. “NK In & Out” reports that the North Korean authorities have dispatched the army, the People’s Safety Agency and army reserve personnel to collect leaflets dropped near the DMZ. Additionally, during People’s Unit meetings, North Koreans are being encouraged to report any leaflets and taught how to act when they find those leaflets. They are taught that those who read the contents of the leaflets or share them will be punished for collaborating with the anti-Korean activities of the enemy... http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=4291
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November 20, 2008, 03:11:39 AM
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SKoreans float more propaganda leaflets into NorthBy HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer 20 November 2008SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border Thursday into North Korea, ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and threats from the North to sever relations if it continues. North Korea announced last week it would ban border crossings starting Dec. 1, citing the South Korean government's refusal to clamp down on "confrontational" activities, including the leafletting. South Korean officials implored activists Wednesday to stop sending the leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Il and his authoritarian regime, saying the campaign threatens to heighten tensions with the North. Relations between the two Koreas have been tense since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February pledging to get tough with the North. However, activists went ahead Thursday and sent about 10 huge helium balloons — each stuffed with some 10,000 flyers — across the heavily fortified border. "We'll continue to send the leaflets. The government's appeal wasn't sincere," Choi Sung-yong said after launching a balloon from a spot near the border. Thursday's leaflets criticized Kim's autocratic rule and called on North Koreans to rise up against his regime, saying he suffered a stroke recently. "Your 'great' leader's last days are approaching. The dictator has collapsed from illness," one leaflet said. A South Korean lawmaker — who returned home Wednesday from a five-day trip to North Korea — told reporters Thursday that the North has no intention of resolving the impasse unless South Korea changes its policy toward it. "They spoke in such a strong manner that we couldn't say anything (in response)," said Kang Ki-kap, head of the small opposition Democratic Labor Party. North Korean party officials also expressed dissatisfaction with media speculation over Kim's health condition, said Lee Young-soon, another member of the DLP delegation that visited the North. She did not elaborate. South Korean and U.S. officials have said North Korea's 66-year-old leader, who allows no criticism or opposition to his rule, is likely to have suffered a stroke, but North Korea has denied he was ill. The propaganda activists — many of them defectors from the North — say their hope is that North Koreans will pick up the leaflets printed on vinyl paper and realize their government has been lying to them. The leaflets are among the most direct means of reaching ordinary North Koreans since their access to the outside world is strictly regulated by the government. While it's unclear exactly how many North Koreans read the leaflets, several defectors to the South have said the flyers prompted them to plot their defections. The two Koreas agreed in 2004 to end decades of propaganda warfare — including broadcasts by radio and loudspeaker and messages printed on leaflets. However, the South Korean government says it cannot ban people from sending the leaflets themselves because of laws protecting freedom of speech. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and remain divided by a heavily fortified border.   
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November 20, 2008, 09:09:04 AM
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More from BBC News... Follow the link to see video footage of the balloons' release: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7739098.stmBalloon campaign assails N KoreaSouth Korean activists launch the huge helium balloonsSouth Korean activists have sent thousands of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, ignoring threats from the North to sever relations. Activists launched 10 huge helium balloons, each stuffed with 10,000 flyers critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Pyongyang said last week it would close the land border if the acts continued. Seoul has appealed to activists to stop, but says its free speech laws protect the practice. Earlier today, 10 South Korean activists gathered on a hillside in freezing rain to release the balloons. The North has called the leaflet campaign "psychological warfare" and says that it risks provoking military confrontation. Increasing vitriol Each bundle of leaflets has its own timing mechanism, readied to burst open at different intervals and scatter the cargo over a wide area north of the heavily fortified border, wind permitting. "Your 'great' leader's last days are approaching. The dictator has collapsed from illness""My fellow North Koreans! Do not just sit and die of hunger but fight against Kim Jong-il," read one new leaflet from a group of activists that defected from the North. It also suggested Mr Kim has had nine wives or consorts and accused him of living in luxury while millions of his people go hungry. Other pamphlets called for the overthrow of Mr Kim and repeated claims he has suffered a stroke - a highly taboo subject inside the country over which his family has exercised absolute authority for 60 years. "Your 'great' leader's last days are approaching. The dictator has collapsed from illness," another leaflet said. 'Warfare' The launches of the giant balloons - each 10m (33 feet) long and a metre in diameter - have worsened already tense relations. Last week, the North vowed to shut the inter-Korean land border on 1 December, citing the South Korean government's refusal to clamp down on "confrontational" activities, including the leafleting. The move would cripple a Seoul-funded industrial estate developed in the North as a symbol of reconciliation. The North also accused the South of violating a 2004 agreement to end decades of cross-border propaganda warfare. While the Seoul government has halted activities and appealed to activists to stop their campaigns, the balloon launches continue. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and remain divided by a heavily fortified border. Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7739098.stm
Published: 2008/11/20 10:19:26 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
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November 26, 2008, 09:35:02 AM
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Activists to Keep Sending Propaganda to N.KoreaNov.26,2008http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200811/200811260017.htmlActivists for human rights in North Korea on Tuesday vowed to keep sending propaganda leaflets to the North even though the government has asked them to desist. The announcement was made by Park Sang-hak, head of Fighters for Free North Korea and Choi Sung-yong, president of Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea. Park and Choi said at a news conference held in Central Government Complex that they had decided to suspend their activities of sending leaflets for three months but reversed the decision after the North announced Monday that it will suspend tours to the North Korean border city of Kaesong and halt a cross-border rail service. In a statement, they said North Korea’s recent actions did not encourage them to have second thought. They promised to send more leaflets, which are usually floated across the border attached to helium balloons, unless Pyongyang officially apologizes for the fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in Mt.Kumgang. Choi said the two groups will decide what to do on Dec. 1, the day when North Korea has threatened to cut off all cross-border traffic. If North Korea agrees to dialogue with South Korea, he said, the groups could stop sending the leaflets, but if the talks prove fruitless, they will resume.
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December 01, 2008, 11:11:57 PM
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From AFP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gO91YgpmDRJBLYCSKNyrJM1tpusQ"SKorea activists scuffle over anti-Pyongyang leaflets01 December 2008SEOUL (AFP) — South Korean rights activists Tuesday launched more propaganda leaflets into North Korea after scuffling with critics who accused them of straining cross-border relations, witnesses said. The scuffles erupted when dozens of left-leaning critics tried to stop the rights groups from launching the balloon-borne leaflets across the border, witnesses said. The two sides exchanged kicks, punches and curses. One person suffered a head injury and was taken to hospital despite police intervention. Officers took away some activists from both sides for questioning, including Park Sang-Hak who heads the Fighters for Free North Korea, a group representing defectors. Park was later released. North Korea, which Monday began tightly restricting border crossings by South Koreans amid worsening ties, has strongly criticised the leaflet launches. It accuses the Seoul government of condoning them but authorities here say they have no legal way to stop the launches. The government says it has pleaded in vain for the rights groups to stop. Park and his partner Choi Sung-Yong, who works for the release of southern abductees held by Pyongyang, had prepared to launch 100,000 leaflets Tuesday but were not able to dispatch all of them. "We were unable to send all the leaflets because of those commies," Choi briefly told AFP by phone from a police station where he was being questioned. He said only about 10,000 were launched because of the scuffles. Park fired a tear gas pistol in the air at one point to prevent the left-leaning activists from approaching him. The leaflets denounce the North's leader Kim Jong-Il as a dictator and criticise his luxurious lifestyle. They also carry reports that Kim, who is said to have suffered a stroke this summer, is unwell. Some leaflets have dollar bills attached, to encourage people to pick them up despite the risk of punishment in the hardline communist state."
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December 02, 2008, 08:50:26 PM
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Courtesy of chosun.com N.Korean Army in Propaganda Leaflet Sweep02 December 2008North Korea has mobilized soldiers in a campaign to sweep up propaganda leaflets from South Korean activists, which are dropped in large quantities on the coastal areas in South Hwanghae Province, Radio Free Asia on Tuesday quoted North Korean sources in China as saying. Soldiers collect them in the morning, the broadcaster claimed. Those in charge of food rationing pay more attention to the leaflets. Harsher punishment has reportedly been given to North Koreans who have either kept or read them. It claimed one farmer was interrogated by a state security office and sent to a camp for eight years of labor and indoctrination for having told his neighbors that he had read a leaflet. North Korean authorities have reportedly ordered residents not to pick up leaflets themselves but report them to state security offices first. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200812/200812030011.html
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December 04, 2008, 09:16:59 AM
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'Propaganda missiles' latest test of patience for beleaguered N Korea
Thu, Dec 04, 2008FAMINE, ISOLATION, a collapsing economy and a leader reportedly near death - times are tough for North Korea, writes David McNeillin Tokyo And now another irritant has arrived to test the patience of the time-warped Stalinist state: balloons! For weeks, anti-Pyongyang protesters have gathered near the demilitarised zone that separates the divided peninsula and launched hundreds of hydrogen-filled "propaganda missiles" north of the border. The balloons bear water-proofed one-dollar bills and fliers criticising the North's ailing dictator Kim Jong-il, who is believed to be recovering from a stroke. "Down with Kim Jong-il" is one of the milder comments; others brand him a hypocrite, philanderer, kidnapper, murderer and demand that he tell the world about the state of his health. "We're going to keep this up until the regime collapses," protester Choi Sung-yong promised the South Korean media this week. Choi leads a group called the Abductees' Family Union, which accuses Pyongyang of kidnapping dozens of southern citizens. The group is believed to be backed by supporters in the South and the United States. According to sources in China and elsewhere, the balloons have scattered thousands of leaflets around the impoverished countryside. This has infuriated Pyongyang which has become sensitive to criticism since reports of Kim's illness began. The fliers have reportedly forced the mobilisation of North Korean troops to track them down. Several farmers caught reading them have been imprisoned, says the Korea Times. The protest has further aggravated already tense relations between the two sides, which have soured since the February election of the South's president, Lee Myung-bak. Lee has cut back on co-operation and aid until Pyongyang comes clean on its nuclear weapons programme. On Monday, hundreds of South Koreans were expelled from the Kaesong industrial site, a $440-million (€348 million) joint-capitalist experiment started in 2000 under Lee's predecessor Kim Dae-Jung. Cross-border traffic has slowed to a trickle and the North's key source of foreign currency, the Geumgang Mountain tourist zone, has been closed since the summer following the killing of a South Korean tourist. President Lee's opponents blame him for needlessly provoking Seoul's belligerent northern neighbour and torpedoing a decade of slowly improving ties. Some argue that the balloons have made things worse. Critics have turned out in force to prevent them getting airborne, sparking clashes that the police have struggled to contain. Several protesters on both sides have been hospitalised. Propaganda balloons were used by the South's military until frozen relations began thawing about a decade ago, but the South Korean ministry of unification wants the protests to end, despite being legally powerless to stop them. Choi and his supporters believe they are helping to educate the North and credit the fliers with spreading the news of Kim's illness among its beleaguered citizens. "They are our brothers and sisters," he said this week. "We can't abandon them." © 2008 The Irish Timeshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/1204/1228337395748_pf.html
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December 05, 2008, 12:00:17 PM
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A report from the Korean Times says Free North Korea groups have agreed to stop sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea: NGOs to Stop Sending Anti-NK Leaflets12-05-2008 17:48
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter, The Korean TimesA civic group that had disseminated anti-North Korean leaflets to the North pledged to stop for the time being Friday. In a statement, leaders of the Fighter for Free North Korea (FFN) and Abductee's Family Union (AFU) vowed that they would not send the materials and wait and see if there is a change in the North's attitude toward the South. They made the decision shortly after wrapping up their meeting with governing Grand National Party (GNP) chairman Park Hee-tae at the party headquarters. Park set up the meeting to encourage them to stop sending the propaganda material, which played a role in worsening inter-Korean relations, for the time being, for the `great cause.' Park said sending fliers to the North was not illegal as freedom of expression is guaranteed under the Constitution, but he hopes that the civic groups make a decision to help move South-North relations forward. North Korea accused the South of allowing civic groups to send the propaganda leaflets to the North, arguing it drove inter-Korean relations to an impasse. In a press conference Tuesday, Park pledged to sit down with the civic group leaders to discuss the negative effects of the fliers and possible solutions. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/12/117_35640.html
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December 20, 2008, 12:58:28 PM
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N Korean defectors send more leaflets to N KoreaAFP, 19 December 2008http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hK1TkCn8mk1BcEA0fGgGsx1jezfwSEOUL (AFP) — A group of North Korean defectors said they had flown a fresh batch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets over the border, a move considered highly provocative by the communist state. Lee Min-Bok, who leads a group of North Korean Christians, said they sent 1.5 million leaflets into the North Friday from Baekryeong island near the inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea. "We sent a total of 1.5 million leaflets carried by 26 helium balloons into the North on Friday," Lee of the North Korea Christian Association told journalists. Plastic bags, which contained daily necessities such as socks, stockings, toothpaste, toothbrushes, aspirin, ball-point pens and cigarette lighters, were also floated on sea currents flowing north, he said. "We had favourable weather conditions this month," Lee said, adding the group had scattered millions of such leaflets in December by taking advantage of winds blowing north. "We're sending these leaflets for the purpose of evangelizing North Koreans and rescuing them," he said. Activists, mostly North Korean defectors, have been sending leaflets across the border for years without creating much of a stir. But the fliers became a major cause of tension against the backdrop of worsening inter-Korean ties, especially after they touched on the reported health problems of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il. North Korea's Committee for Peaceful Unification of Fatherland (CPUF) on Friday issued a fresh warning against what it said was the South's policy of confrontation. "We'll never tolerate the anti-Republic (North Korea) moves by the current South Korean regime and we will certainly settle the score with them," a spokesman for the CPUF was quoted as saying by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. Inter-Korean ties have been deteriorating towards those seen during the Cold War since the inauguration of the conservative government of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in February. Lee rolled back his liberal predecessor's policy of engagement by linking economic aid to the North with progress in denuclearization, openness and reform, terms highly unlikely to be accepted by the hardline communist state. This month, the North expelled hundreds of South Korean workers from the Kaesong joint industrial estate and imposed strict border controls, in protest at what it called the South's policy of confrontation. On Friday, it said it had arrested a man who tried to conduct a "terrorist mission" against Kim under orders from a South Korean intelligence agency - an allegation denied by the South's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service.
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February 19, 2009, 12:22:01 AM
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More on the Korean leaflet war from The Korean Times. Anti-Kim Jong-il Leaflet Activists Face Investigation
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
02-18-2009 18:21
The Ministry of Unification asked the prosecution to investigate two conservative civic groups that illegally sent balloons containing North Korean banknotes and anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, the ministry's spokesman said Wednesday.
The measure came as the Abductees' Family Union (AFU) and the Fighters for Free North Korea (FFNK), a group of North Korean defectors in the South, have been sending the balloons across the Demilitarized Zone despite repeated government warnings.
``It has been confirmed that the two groups still have North Korean currency,'' the spokesman, Kim Ho-nyoun, said. ``It is against the law governing inter-Korean exchange and cooperation to bring in North Korean banknotes without state approval.''
Bringing North Korean currency here is allowed for trade purposes only. Those who violate the law may be sentenced to up to three years in prison, or fined up to 10 million won (approximately $6,800).
The activists illegally possessed the North Korean banknotes and used them, officials said.
The Seoul government has sought a legal basis to stop the anti-Pyongyang leaflet activity and reviewed the possibility that the activists might have violated law related to handling high-pressure gas, as they inflated the large balloons with hydrogen.
Members of the two organizations nonetheless sent balloons filled with 20,000 vinyl sheets containing propaganda leaflets and 30, 5,000 North Korean won notes over the border Monday on the 67th birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. A 5,000-won note is equivalent to one-and-a-half months salary for a North Korean worker.
They originally planned to send 100,000 leaflets and more than 400 notes but unfavorable winds hindered the plan.
The groups began the anti-Kim campaign last year in a bid to criticize his dictatorship and human rights abuses and call for the return of South Korean abductees.
Progressive civic groups expressed concerns over the activity, saying it could worsen inter-Korean relations.
The leaflets have been troublesome to the secretive state because they break the country's self-imposed information embargo.
The communist state urged Seoul to stop the activity during two rounds of military talks before it restricted border crossings Dec. 1.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/02/116_39815.html
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March 17, 2009, 11:36:35 PM
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The Fighters for a Free North Korea are continuing their Bbira war. From the Chosun Ilbo:http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200903/200903180020.htmlActivists Send More Leaflets, Money to N.Korea
18 March 2009
Some 20 activists gathered in the Imjingak pavilion just south of the inter-Korean border at noon on Tuesday and sent some 100,000 propaganda leaflets and 432 North Korean W5,000 bills attached to a helium balloon across the border to North Korea. They were member of two groups called Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea and Fighters for Free North Korea.
"The reason we are sending North Korean won instead of U.S. dollar is because we want North Korean citizens to use the money comfortably and freely without having to draw suspicion from the authorities," said Choi Sung-yong, president of FAANK.
On Feb. 16, the activists sent 20,000 propaganda leaflets and some 30 North Korean W5,000 notes. Park Sang-hak, head of the FFNK, said, "The leaflets are sent for humanitarian reasons, not for political purposes. They aim to help North Koreans find out the truth. We will continue to send leaflets until the human rights situation in North Korea improves."
 South Korean activists prepare to float money and propaganda leaflets to the North from the Freedom Bridge south of the DMZ on Tuesday, 18 March 2009.
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