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This summer has presented North Korea with a number of good opportunities to try and incite tension in South Korea, the so-called ‘South-South conflict’. Notably, North Korea’s propagandist media has been reporting in unusual depth on protests surrounding the construction of a ROK Navy base on Jeju Island, off the south coast of the Korean Peninsula.
Domestic North Korean media outlets including Rodong Shinmun, Minju Chosun and Pyongyang Broadcast and outward facing organizations like Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) and Uriminzokkiri have all reported the activities of protestors against the naval base very positively, portraying them as actually the anti-government actions of leftists.
The Pyongyang media began covering the issue in May, calling the base an advance position for an invasion of the North that will be used in the U.S.’ Missile Defense (MD) system, thereby offering anti-American leftists the logic to struggle against the construction.
On May 31st, Rodong Shinmun and KCNA reported, “The conservative authorities are making the Jeju Naval Base an advance base in the realization of the Americans’ strategy to conquer Asia,” adding, “Jeju Island is being eyed up as one of the major targets for the establishment of MD, and is expected to anchor U.S. aircraft carriers.”
Moving forward into August, on the 18th Minju Chosun and KCNA reported in a similar vein, “They are intending to construct an advanced base on Jeju Island to launch a preemptive strike on our Republic by sea,” but warned, “If they do so according to plan, the livelihoods of local people will be eliminated, and will be the first to suffer at the outbreak of war.”
Then, after one more day, Uriminzzokiri, the website operated by the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, called to mind the April 3rd, 1948 Jeju Uprising, in which tens of thousands of Jeju Island residents were either killed or fled the island in the face of a military clampdown, insisting that, “They are creating a climate of repression reminiscent of the 4.3 Jeju People’s Uprising.”
Elsewhere, an ongoing protest at the offices of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction in Seoul has been getting equally vibrant coverage, with Uriminzokkiri reporting on it and attempted to incite further resistance to the company’s plans on July 13th, 15th, 23rd and 29th, and then in August on the 2nd, 7th, 19th and 20th.
