• South Korean activists' propaganda balloons anger North Korea
    9 replies, posted
[t]http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/5842336-3x2-940x627.jpg[/t] [QUOTE]South Korean activists have succeeded in sending thousands of propaganda leaflets across the border into North Korea. South Korean activists launched balloons to send the leaflets with messages critical of North Korea's leader, ignoring threats of military action from Pyongyang and a plea by Seoul not to jeopardise efforts to improve ties with the North. An earlier attempt was thwarted by local residents who blocked the entrance to the launch site in the border area of Paju, saying it threatened peace. The North had warned of severe consequences if the launch went ahead. "Things like this will trigger artillery firing at us," said Kwon Soon-wan, a resident of the northern-most area of Paju. "Safety is top priority because it's our lives that are hanging in the balance." But a small group of mostly North Korean defectors launched balloons carrying about 20,000 leaflets from another site, the nearby city of Gimpo. The two Koreas remain technically at war because a truce was signed at the end of their 1950-53 conflict, not a peace treaty. More than 1.8 million troops are deployed on the peninsula, making it one of the world's most heavily armed regions.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-26/propaganda-balloons-raise-north-korean-ire/5842294[/url]
I get the gesture, but I think it's bad in the long run. Nobody will ever see the pamphlets, and all it will do is make North Korea leave the negotiations table. The SK government is in a pickle because if they refuse to do anything about the pamphlets, the NK government will take it as sanctioning the act. However, if they DO arrest the people (for some reason like jeopardizing national security; that's what the US would call it), the SK people will see it as the SK government repressing their right to free speech to appease the north korean government. Since they've been doing these pamphlets for years, relations between NK and SK will be once again turn cold and talks won't happen. I predict by february next year there's going to be another border incident, the North Koreans will move troops to the border, and the US and South Korea will once again conduct military exercises dangerously close to the border. It happens every. fucking. year. The only thing that can change North Korea (for the better) now is a North Korean Mikhail Gorbechev (or someone in the government to assassinate Kim Jong un), who will be open to close western relations and maybe even western business influence. However, Kim Jong-Un is NOT Mikhail Gorbechev, and since [url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-new-satellite-images-show-north-korea-continues-expansion-of-labor-camps/]the labor camps in North Korea are expanding[/url], I don't think KJU qualifies as a Nikita Kruschev. It's hard to see a future where one of the Kims will progress towards tearing down the wall. The brutal South Korean dictatorship fell when the head of the KCIA assassinated dictator Park Chung-Hee. What followed was a progressively destabilizing dictatorship which resulted into the corrupt democracy we see today. It's hard to see it happening exactly this way in North Korea, however, because a power struggle in North Korea might instead become a very violent situation.
North Korea is angry that South Korea even exists.
I honestly think its a good thing The Americans launched pamphlet bombs across Nazi Germany during WWII to reveal the atrocities caused by the Third Reich and it worked like a charm Honestly dropping information balloons across the state is good to slowly break down their influence, while I do understand NK will most likely kill or imprison anyone who picks a pamphlet up, it definitely won't stop the information leak
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46331929]I honestly think its a good thing The Americans launched pamphlet bombs across Nazi Germany during WWII to reveal the atrocities caused by the Third Reich and it worked like a charm Honestly dropping information balloons across the state is good to slowly break down their influence, while I do understand NK will most likely kill or imprison anyone who picks a pamphlet up, it definitely won't stop the information leak[/QUOTE] If South Korea really wanted to wage a war of information, they should do more than allow a few random people to launch balloons that barely make it past the DMZ. I'd say scatter pamphlets all over Pyongyang by airplane, but the North would definitely retaliate, either by bombing the South like in 2010 or merely severing negotiations.
I don't see how you can worsen relations with a country that literally doesn't want your country to exist.
[QUOTE=SPARLOCK;46332338]I don't see how you can worsen relations with a country that literally doesn't want your country to exist.[/QUOTE] Well they kinda have this no shooting at each other thing going on, I can see it getting worse if they start killing.
[QUOTE=Cheshire_cat;46331969]If South Korea really wanted to wage a war of information, they should do more than allow a few random people to launch balloons that barely make it past the DMZ. I'd say scatter pamphlets all over Pyongyang by airplane, but the North would definitely retaliate, either by bombing the South like in 2010 or merely severing negotiations.[/QUOTE] morter that shoots pamphlets in clusters
Can you really call it propaganda? South Korea could probably give the citizens some objective facts about the North and that would be enough.
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;46333650]Can you really call it propaganda? South Korea could probably give the citizens some objective facts about the North and that would be enough.[/QUOTE] Propaganda isn't necessarily false information, just a message with an agenda, meant to strenghten a certain cause. While it's often true that propaganda isn't necessarily 100 % factually correct, it's not required to be.
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