That’s More Like It: South Resumes Propaganda Broadcasting to North Korea

While most of the reporting has focused on the rather futile gesture of blaring propaganda from loudspeakers, it seems that South Korea is doing something else that’s more likely to reach a wider North Korean audience:

South Korea’s military resumed radio broadcasts airing Western music, news and comparisons between the South and North Korean political and economic situations late Monday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military also planned to launch propaganda leaflets by balloon and other methods Tuesday to inform North Koreans about the ship sinking. [AP]

The leaflets may or may not reach a lot of people, but if the South Koreans send enough of them, they’ll put a significant strain on the morale and maintenance of any units sent out to comb the countryside for them. It should be an explicit goal of South Korean psyops not just to propagate information, but to overload the security forces’ capacity to suppress it.

If they’re willing to drop leaflets, why not radios, cell phones, MP4 players, and crank chargers? If they’re willing to broadcast a radio broadcast signal, why not a cell phone signal? Here’s hoping that’s the next step. North Koreans do need information, but what they need most is for their isolation to be broken down.

I remain disappointed that Lee hasn’t yet made the decision to close down Kaesong, but his decision to restart psyops and information operations against North Korea is more consequential than any other response to the sinking of the Cheonan.