South Korean Peace Propaganda and the Ballooning Covert War

On Saturday, the South Korean Citizens’ Alliance for Sending North Korean Leaflets (CASNL) plans to launch another set of balloons with propaganda leaflets across the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The CASNL is known for its ties to the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy. Pyongyang considers the launch as a declaration of war while South Korean and western mainstream media position Pyongyang as if it was overreacting.

This may very well be the case, but it is a matter of fact that the South Korean government, along with the U.S.’ actively prepares the armed overthrow of the North Korean government. That fact, however, is neither reported in South Korean or U.S. mainstream media.

The CASNL announced that it would launch balloons, carrying some 100,000 leaflets into the DPRK on Saturday, October 25.

The CASNL is chaired by Professor Chae Uwon from the Busan University. Professor Chae Uwon and the CASNL are known for their association with the U.S. State Department’s and CIA’s subversive foreign policy branch, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and NED president Carl Gershman.

The NED president is among others known for claiming that a sentence to labor in a coal mine in the DPRK equals a death sentence, or for comparing the DPRK with Nazi Germany. In a 2013 NED publication, Gershman would claim:

“Much more is known today about what is happening in North Korea than what is known about the Nazi Crimes during World War II …. There is no excuse for inaction. The issue needs to be raised in every international forum and with an urgency equal to the evil that is being confronted …. there is no greater evil in the world today”.

The planned launch of the propaganda balloons has been widely criticized by leftist Korean peace advocacy groups as well as from conservatives. Ha Taekyung, a conservative South Korean MP and the renown North Korean defector Lee Minbok categorically denounced the planned balloon launch in a joint statement, saying:

“This actions of the organization which is planning to launch leaflets on October 25 are, in short, a scam”.

The two added that the winds, according to weather forecasts, were unfavorable on October 25, implying that it was more of a staged provocation and propaganda for the CASNL than an attempt to send a message across the people on the other side of the inner-Korean border.

The fact that a balloon launch is criticized by a conservative MP and a renown defector, even though Ha Taekyung’s and Lee Minbok’s criticism is very moderate, is unusual and may, indeed, distract from more pressing issues with the launches of balloons.

Both Ha and Lee have previously participated in launches. Another argument against the launch on Saturday, which the two made during a press conference earlier this week, was that the public launch only would attract unnecessary attention. The two stressed that it was better to launch the balloons without alerting the press while avoiding unnecessary conflict with Pyongyang.

Seoul and Washington are building an armed Insurgency in the DPRK.

Park Sang-Hak, who heads the so-called Fighters for Free North Korea (FFNK), for his part, denounced the statement of Ha and Le as “replete with lies” that “hurt the feelings” of those who launch the balloons. The FFNK, which is also closely tied to the NED, argues that “a small group of enlightened fighters” must bring freedom and democracy to the subjugated people in the North.

While South Korean, U.S. and generally speaking Western mainstream media describe Pyongyang’s response to the balloon launch on Saturday as “overreaction”, it is a matter of public record that the governments of South Korea and the U.S., jointly, plan the armed overthrow of the government in Pyongyang, by fostering an armed insurgency as well as special forces.

An in-depth analysis of the annual, joint South Korean – U.S. special forces drills which were added to the annual Foal Eagle drills reveals clearly, that South Korea and the U.S. are aiming at establishing an armed insurgency in the DPRK. The analysis was published in a nsnbc article, entitled “North Korea may be Next US Target for “Revolution” by Special Forces”.

The article also contains a leaked copy of the U.S. Special Forces training circular for foreign fighters, entitled Special Forces Unconventional Warfare, TC 18-01. The strategy that is outlined in the 2010 document has been applied in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and it is highly probably that the same strategy is being applied for the attempted subversion of the DPRK.

Considering it a declared fact that the “war games” aim at utilizing family contacts of defectors and family contacts between families whose members have been separated due to the war in the Korean peninsula to establish this armed insurgency, the statement from Pyongyang, that balloon launches are considered a declaration or acts of war appear as less of an “overreaction” as South Korean, U.S. and generally speaking Western media are portraying the response.

 

 

Dr. Christof Lehmann is the founder and editor of nsnbc. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and a wide range of other political issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations. On 28 August 2011 he started his blog nsnbc, appalled by misrepresentations of the aggression against Libya and Syria. In March 2013 he turned nsnbc into a daily, independent, international on-line newspaper. He can be contacted at nsnbc international at nsnbc.wordpress@gmail.com

 

 

http://nsnbc.me/2014/10/24/south-korean-peace-propaganda-ballooning-covert-war/

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Reply