A South Korean soldier inspects a loudspeaker installed to broadcast propaganda during military training near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in Paju, South Korea, on the 9th. (Photo source: Republic of Korea Ministry of Defense)
Kim Yo-jong, North Korea’s vice minister of the Workers’ Party, threatened to take a new response if South Korea combined leaflet distribution and loudspeaker broadcasts. The Korean government warned that any attempt to cause anxiety and confusion in Korean society is unacceptable. Reporter Kim Hwan-yong reports from Seoul.
In a statement released through the official Korean Central News Agency on the evening of the 9th, Vice-Minister of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un, said, “If South Korea carries out the act of distributing leaflets or leaflets across the border and provocations through loudspeakers, it will be a new threat to our country.” “You will see a response,” he said.
Deputy Minister Kim said, “Our response was planned to end within the 9th, but the situation has changed.”
In response to the distribution of anti-North Korea leaflets by South Korean civil organizations, North Korea distributed so-called ‘filth balloons’ to South Korea on the 28th and 29th of last month, the 1st and 2nd of last month, and the 8th, 9th, and until the morning of the 10th.
Deputy Minister Kim said that in the early morning of the 8th and 9th, 7.5 tons of toilet paper was distributed across the border using about 1,400 utensils. “If you look closely, you will see that we only distributed empty toilet paper and did not include any political instigation content.” claimed.
The South Korean military resumed loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea for the first time in six years in response to North Korea’s waste balloon offensive on the afternoon of the 9th, just before Vice Minister Kim’s statement.
However, South Korean military authorities announced that North Korea again distributed about 310 more sewage balloons from the night of the 9th to the morning of the 10th.
Vice Minister Kim criticized South Korea for “continuing to create a new crisis environment by formalizing the hostile behavior of resuming loudspeaker broadcast provocations,” adding, “Seoul must immediately stop dangerous actions that lead to further confrontational crises and reflect on itself.” “I give you a stern warning.”
The South Korean government reaffirmed its previous position that it would take measures that would be difficult for North Korea to endure in response to Vice Minister Kim’s threat of a “new response.”
This is the content of Unification Ministry Spokesperson Koo Byeong-sam’s remarks at a briefing on the 10th.
[Recording: Spokesperson Koo Byeong-sam] “We cannot tolerate any attempt by North Korea to cause anxiety and social chaos among our people, and North Korea should not make the misjudgment of using our legitimate response as a justification for provocation.”
South Korean military authorities activated loudspeakers installed in front-line areas starting at 5 p.m. on the 9th. It is reported that several fixed loudspeakers were operated for approximately two hours.
The loudspeaker broadcast to North Korea was carried out by re-broadcasting ‘Voice of Freedom’, a psychological warfare broadcast against North Korea produced by the South Korean military, through loudspeakers.
However, it is reported that the Korean military authorities did not make a loudspeaker broadcast on the 10th.
In a notice sent to reporters at the Ministry of National Defense on the 10th, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “No loudspeaker broadcast to North Korea has been conducted to date, and it is known that there will be no broadcast on the 10th.” “If North Korea commits a dastardly act, we are prepared to broadcast it immediately.” “He said.
Lee Seong-jun, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Public Affairs Office, said in a regular briefing on the day that the reason for stopping loudspeaker broadcasts to North Korea after just two hours the day before was, “We are conducting operations flexibly according to the strategic and operational situation.”
Director Lee explained, “We have to take into account equipment rest, etc., and we are operating for as long as necessary and in the necessary time zone, taking into account various factors.”
The military’s mention of ‘flexible operations’ can be interpreted as meaning that it will maintain a loudspeaker broadcasting posture and decide whether to actually operate it based on the situation.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff previously disclosed the operation of loudspeakers against North Korea on the 9th and emphasized, “Whether or not the military conducts additional loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea depends entirely on North Korea’s actions.”
Director Lee said he is also preparing for the possibility of a North Korean attack targeting loudspeaker broadcasting equipment.
[Recording: Public Affairs Director Lee Seong-jun] “Primarily, we are carrying out the operation in a protected area. They are also wearing the necessary equipment. Also, when attacked, we are prepared to retaliate ‘immediately and violently’, so I don’t think we will be able to provoke something like that easily.”
In response to North Korea’s wooden box landmine provocation, the South Korean military resumed loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea for the first time in 11 years in August 2015. At that time, North Korea aimed at the loudspeakers placed at the front line of the 28th Division in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do, and fired one anti-aircraft gun and three direct-fire firearms. There is a case where .
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “We have identified a trend of North Korea installing loudspeakers for broadcasting to South Korea in frontline areas,” and added, “There has been no broadcasting to South Korea to date, but we are maintaining a readiness posture by closely monitoring North Korean military movements.”
Like South Korea, North Korea removed at least 30 loudspeakers facing South Korea in accordance with the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration in 2018.
If North Korea also resumes broadcasting to South Korea, there is a possibility that North and South Korea will simultaneously conduct psychological warfare through loudspeakers.
Meanwhile, although Vice Minister Kim’s statement contains threatening content by mentioning a ‘new response’, it is evaluated that the level of criticism toward South Korea is not strong enough for a statement responding to the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea, which North Korea is extremely sensitive to.
Dr. Cho Han-beom of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a national research institute under the South Korean government, said that Vice Minister Kim’s statement shows an intention to manage the situation rather than escalate the war. The North Korean authorities are not informing the people of the tension with South Korea, and the sewage sent this time is also dangerous, unlike before. He said this falling paper was trash.
[Recording: Dr. Han-beom Jo] “Currently, we are not informing the internal public. And secondly, what North Korea is sending now is different from last time. The last two times were really filth, but now they’re closer to things they can claim to be leaflets. “You can see that it is not a more harmful substance than last time.”
In fact, North Korea’s domestic media, including the Labor Party’s newspaper ‘Rodong Shinmun’, are not reporting Vice Minister Kim’s statement, let alone reports on the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea or the distribution of waste balloons against South Korea.
However, North Korea is distributing filth balloons to South Korea in response to the distribution of anti-North Korea leaflets by South Korean civic groups, so there is a possibility that it will send out filth balloons again if a civilian organization sends leaflets.
In this case, there is a high possibility that South Korean military authorities will operate loudspeakers against North Korea again, and if that happens, North Korea may launch the ‘new response’ mentioned by Vice Minister Kim.
The South Korean government is maintaining its policy of approaching the distribution of leaflets against North Korea by private organizations in consideration of the purpose of the Constitutional Court’s decision to guarantee freedom of expression, and some private groups are said to be taking the stance of sending leaflets against North Korea again this week if the wind direction is right. I lost.
Regarding the ‘new response’ mentioned by Vice Minister Kim, Dr. Yang Wook of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a private research institute, said that there is a possibility that so-called gray zone provocations will be strengthened rather than military provocations.
[Recording: Dr. Yang Wook] “It is highly likely that we will utilize successful gray area provocations so far. For example, although the recent issue has not been a big issue, a large-scale cyber attack could be launched or the range of GPS disruption could be expanded much further than it is now.”
Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said that North Korea will be cautious in its physical response, such as aimed shooting, considering the hardline response stance of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, and that there is a possibility that it will launch another unexpected gray area provocation like a sewage balloon.
