Escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula
have grabbed headlines over the past few days after the two Koreas traded
artillery fire last Thursday. Amid inter-Korean talks aimed at defusing the
situation, residents in some areas, namely those abutting South Korea, report
evacuation drills and palpable tension brewing from the state’s declaration of
a “quasi state of war.” For residents in most regions, however, life is
carrying on “as usual,” Daily NK has learned.
“We were expecting nationwide evacuation drills
in the wake of the proclamation of a quasi-war, but things are actually quiet
here,” a source from Yanggang Province told Daily NK on the 24th. “There
haven’t even been organizational meetings or inminban (people’s unit) meetings,
which has left many people rather perplexed.”
Daily NK spoke with an additional source in
the same province to corroborate this news.
While state-run media outlets double their efforts
to underscore the “atmosphere of war,” citizens in most regions are carrying on
market activities with no discernible difference in their routine, she said,
adding that just this morning many in the area were rounded up for more construction
work to complete another set of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il statues ahead of the
70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party Foundation Day in October.
A source in North Hamgyong Province
reported much the same. “Sino-North Korea trade seems to be functioning normally. In
fact, the number of trucks transporting goods to China has increased,” he said.
Traders, he noted, have not been mobilized for
any emergency drills and are therefore indifferent to the war rhetoric. As the
North Hamgyong source put it, “they simply believe that the aggravations will
dissipate soon like it did in the past.”
However, tensions are reportedly high in
the regions adjacent to South Korea. “My relatives in Kangwon Province
told me that there have been daily evacuation drills. Soldiers from other areas
have also swarmed into the province, leading some citizens [there] to wonder if
‘something major is imminent,’” he said.
The source surmised that North Korea’s
actions are all about optics and combat readiness posturing–an attempt to
foster an atmosphere of war and send a message to South Korea. Mobilizing only soldiers
in regions near the South is a calculated move on the North’s part to “convey
the heaviest threat possible without actually waging a war,” according to the
source.
Meanwhile, according South Korea’s defense
ministry, North Korea has doubled its artillery units at the border and
deployed around 50 submarines outside their bases. Additionally, the ministry
said it was keeping a close eye 10 North Korean air-cushioned landing craft
that the North has deployed to its frontline.
*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.
