North Korean human rights organizations were prevented by police from carrying out their planned balloon launch at Imjingak on the morning of the 22nd. However, having failed to launch the balloons at 11:30AM, some of the activists headed for Kanghwa Island off the coast of Incheon and, at 6PM, successfully launched the balloons and their cargo of 120,000 leaflets from outside a local museum.
There were obstacles, North Korean threats and the South Korean blockade, but the leaflets finally flew north as planned. “There was a southwest wind blowing at a speed of 3.6m/sec, meaning that the leaflets are likely to have landed in North Hwanghae Province,” one member of the group later reported.
In a closed authoritarian society like North Korea, external information opens the eyes and ears of the people. People who live in free societies, accustomed as they are to money and peace, say they oppose the launching of balloons like these because they make North Korea angry and bring the risk of military attacks.
This absurd perspective ignores the suffering of the starving, repressed North Korean people. The very least we can do is to send them leaflets conveying information, leaflets that can play an important role in opening their eyes to the outside world.
However, leaflets must only be used to open the eyes and ears of the North Korean people. To achieve this, the organizations that undertake the activity should strive to create favorable conditions for it. As such, it is their duty to avoid creating controversy as far as possible.
If they want to do this, they must approach it wisely and quietly so that the people of North Korea actually receive the leaflets. As seen in yesterday’s incident, conflict with government and local residents creates opposition. Not only that; giving advance notice of launch times and dates gives the North Korean authorities enough time to calculate the wind direction and dispatch the security forces to collect the cargo, while advertizing the number of leaflets being sent only tells them how many they need to collect. The result? The leaflets are used to heat barracks, nothing more.
The South Korean government must face serious criticism for its own response to this issue. There have been protests over leafleting before, but the South Korean government’s stance has always been that “we cannot stop the activities of private organizations.” However, this principle was broken yesterday, as it may be again in the future. South Korea blinked, meaning that North Korea is likely to issue a greater military threat next time, meaning that local residents will put more pressure on the South Korean government. It is a vicious circle waiting to begin.
The Lee Myung Bak administration, which used to emphasize a principled approach to North Korea, has let us down, compromised its principles and impeded the activities of private organizations, activities which even the administrations of Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun tolerated.
Therefore, the South Korean government must re-establish its principles immediately. They must stop blocking the activities of private organizations, and would be wise to consider the long-delayed step of supporting broadcasts into North Korea. They must show that yesterday’s incident has not set a terrible precedent for the future.
