By Kang Seung-woo
South Korea is considering resuming psychological warfare operations, such as propaganda broadcasts or propaganda leaflets, against North Korea in the wake of the North's drone infiltration into South Korean airspace, according to a government official, Thursday.
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| This photo shows one of the balloons containing 1 million anti-Pyongyang leaflets that Fighters for a Free North Korea, a Seoul-based organization of North Korean defectors, claimed it sent toward North Korea from the South Korean city of Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, April 25 and 26, 2022. Yonhap |
The idea came to light one day after President Yoon Suk-yeol threatened, Wednesday, to suspend a 2018 military pact if North Korea violates the inter-Korean border again. Last year, North Korea flew five drones across the border for the first time in five years and one of them returned to the North after entering a no-fly zone near the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul.
South and North Korea held a summit on April 27, 2018, where they agreed to stop all hostile acts, including loudspeaker broadcasts and the scattering of leaflets in areas along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and to transform the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into a peace zone.
In addition, they also agreed to halt all hostile acts against each other to reduce tensions along the inter-Korean border, Sept. 19, 2018, on the sidelines of another inter-Korean summit. Plus, the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, better known as the "anti-leaflet law," makes it illegal to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, with violators subject to a maximum prison term of three years or a fine of 30 million won ($23,000).
According to a senior official of the South Korean unification ministry, it has launched a legal review to see if Seoul can resume the use of propaganda loudspeakers along the border or allow propaganda leaflets to be flown into North Korea.
"We are legally reviewing the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act to determine if we can recommence forbidden acts when the Sept. 19 military agreement is suspended," the official said.
Article 23 of the act stipulates that the president may suspend all or a part of each South-North Korean agreement for a fixed period, when significant changes occur in inter-Korean relations or when it is deemed necessary for national security, maintenance of order or public welfare.
Another government official also said in a media interview that if the military pact is suspended, the South Korean military will be able to use loudspeakers along the border again.
North Korea has been sensitively responding to those acts of psychological warfare, both of which are critical of its leader and its regime. As a result, the tactic resulted in a further escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In 2015, North Korea came close to threatening war over the propaganda broadcasts, with its leader Kim Jong-un declaring a "quasi-state of war," while the country blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong in 2020 in anger over leaflets criticizing its leader, saying such leafleting violates a series of peace agreements between the two sides.
Bruce Bennett, a senior international defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said words may be more powerful than bullets and keep the peace in the current environment.
"What scares Kim more than his regime collapsing? Shouldn't South Korea and the United States be threatening the North with a steady flow of outside information if he continues his provocations?" Bennett said.
"North Korea uses psychological operations against South Korea and the United States every day. The North understands how important this Cold War approach can be. While not easy for South Korea and the United States to execute across the North Korean iron curtain, there are many options available to implement psychological operations against the North, if [South] Korea and the United States are sufficiently creative."
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