South Korea to resume loudspeaker broadcasts at DPRK

The “Fighters for Free North Korea*” group claimed to have sent balloons containing USB thumb drives loaded with K-pop music and 200,000 leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un, while another group of DPRK defectors dispatched balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, radios, and USB thumb drives featuring a speech by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

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In 2020, South Korea’s Constitutional Court invalidated a law criminalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda, citing it as an undue restriction on free speech**. Consequently, experts argue that there are currently no legal grounds for the government to intervene in activists’ balloon launches into the DPRK. The South Korean Unification Ministry stated that the issue is being deliberated in light of the 2023 court ruling.

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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have endured for an extended period as a result of systemic escalation on the part of Japan, the US, and South Korea.

The three nations have been conducting joint naval drills in the peninsula and along the demilitarized zone, which has triggered major security concerns on the part of DPRK.

Related:

Psychological warfare and K-pop: South Korea to blast loudspeakers at North Korea

Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye said in 2016 the loudspeaker broadcasts were “the most effective form of psychological warfare” and they had encouraged North Koreans to risk their lives and defect to freedom in the South.

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The broadcasts featured prominently in the joint declaration signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a peace summit in 2018.

In the declaration, it was referred to as a “hostile act” and South Korea pledged to cease the operation and dismantle the speakers

*FFNK partnership organizations:

FFNK has partnered with the Human Rights Foundation on activities to get liberty-oriented materials across the border and into North Korea since 2013.

*Human Rights Foundation/Oslo Freedom Foundation

International Council:

Park Sang-hak (chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea)

**HRF Urges South Korean Government to Respect Freedom of Expression