Activists to Resume Leaflet Balloon Campaign

A wave of free publicity, courtesy of the governments of North and South Korea, has made the leaflet balloon campaign has been a great success. Why quit now?

Activists for human rights in North Korea on Tuesday vowed to keep sending propaganda leaflets to the North even though the government has asked them to desist. The announcement was made by Park Sang-hak, head of Fighters for Free North Korea and Choi Sung-yong, president of Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea.

Park and Choi said at a news conference held in Central Government Complex that they had decided to suspend their activities of sending leaflets for three months but reversed the decision after the North announced Monday that it will suspend tours to the North Korean border city of Kaesong and halt a cross-border rail service. [Chosun Ilbo]

One mistake the activists should not make is to link their campaign to North Korea’s manipulation of North-South commerce. That sounds a lot like an implicit acceptance of responsibility for North Korea’s tantrums, which North Korea is throwing for its own reasons anyway.

Instead, the activists should to stick to simple, strong, personal, and principled message: give us back the people we love. A simple, principled demand is almost always more effective than a complex defense of amateur diplomacy.

If the North does go through with its threats to shut down Kaesong, it will have imposed a steep financial penalty on itself. As of today, the North has not gone so far as to close the complex, but seems to be taking an incremental approach, dragging out its threats for maximum effect. If Lee Myung Bak is anguished about any of this, it’s not obvious:

South Korea said Wednesday it would withdraw the last remaining staffers from its economic cooperation office at the border industrial complex in North Korea this week after Pyongyang demanded the office shut down amid deteriorating ties.

North Korea announced a set of sweeping measures Monday to scale back reconciliation projects with Seoul, including the suspension of a popular tour program to its ancient border city of Kaesong and a drastic cutback of South Korean workers in a nearby industrial zone. [….]

Seoul also provided Pyongyang with a list of managers from South Korean companies who will leave Kaesong this week, Kim said. He declined to say how many are in the proposed pullout list because the number could change depending on negotiations with the North. [IHT]

Lee cuts a good contrast to his predecessors, who at times seemed to act as if they were dependent on North Korea’s cash. Lee seems content to call the North Koreans’ bluff:

Lee has questioned implementing key accords his predecessors struck with the North’s Kim Jong Il that call for providing aid to the North without condition. That and other moves by Seoul, including its recent sponsorship of a U.N. resolution denouncing Pyongyang’s human rights record, have enraged the North.

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