I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Christmas lights anger Pyongyang
This Dec. 23, 2012 file photo shows Christmas lights on a giant steel tower at the Aegibong Peak Observatory in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province near the Demilitarized Zone. The tower was removed in October. / Korea Times photo by Kim Joo-sung
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Psychological warfare to allow N. Koreans to realize they were duped
By Kang Hyun-kyung
A North Korean religious association slammed a South Korean Christian group’s plan to light a big Christmas tree in the Aegibong Peak Observatory in Gimpo, south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
It said Friday that the lighting is, “an act of madness and it is unacceptable.”
“The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) attempts to use religion as a means to spur confrontation between the people of the two sides. It should realize that the malicious plan could lead to a military action from the North,” the North’s association said.
The reaction came weeks after the CCK unveiled a plan to set up a big Christmas tree in the observatory and light it on Dec. 23. The tree will be dressed in Christmas lights for two weeks until Jan. 6, the group said.
The Ministry of National Defense approved the plan.
North Korea’s strong reaction to the Christmas tree is not unusual.
It has threatened military action whenever plans to light Christmas trees near the border were announced during the former Lee Myung-bak government.
It was part of a “psychological warfare” tactic which resumed during the Lee government. Christmas lighting near the DMZ was suspended in 2003 during the liberal Roh Moo-hyun government at the request of North Korea.
On Aegibong Hill, there was a 10-foot tall tree-shaped steel tower where Christmas lights were hung in the past. The tower was removed in October.
Those who are familiar with the reclusive state say it is no wonder that North Korea takes issue with the Christmas lights.
Cha Kyung-sook, a North Korean defector, said culture shock is a key reason behind the regime’s fear of such displays.
North Koreans will be given a chance to compare the stark contrast in the realities of the two societies through Christmas lights and will conclude that they were duped, she said.
“North Korea is suffering from shortages of electricity and they turn off all lights, including the ones on the statue of its founding father Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang,” she told The Korea Times.
“Those who see Christmas lights at night will feel that capitalist South Korea is not as bad as it is thought to be. They were brainwashed to believe that capitalism is all about greed and does nothing good for the people. When they see the Christmas lights at night during wintertime, they might question the truth of what they were taught in the reclusive society,” Cha said.
The North Korean defector said her first settlement destination, which was China, made her realize the harshness of life in North Korea.
“When I arrived in China after successfully escaping from the North in the late 1990s, the first feeling that I had was that China is a perfect communist society that I learned in school in the North,” she said.
“Electricity was available 24 hours. I saw bicycles and agricultural machines in the field that remained intact even though the owners were not there. Things like these are not something that you can imagine in the North. So I could compare how North Korea was different from China and how miserable life that I and other North Koreans had led there.”