A possible escalation against the background of US-South Korean manoeuvres.
In a nutshell, all has been done without too much cost. On April 24, South Korea and the USA completed the joint military exercise Foal Eagle which involved 200,000 South Korean and 3,700 American military troops. The manoeuvres were conducted with the participation of land, naval, air and special forces on the ground, in the air and in the sea. The USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship with a 3,000-tons displacement, participated for the first time in the exercise.
In response, North Korea fired off several missiles, which was as usual qualified by the South Korean military as “a provocation of the North in protest against the annual joint military manoeuvres with the USA commenced in South Korea on March 2.” So on April 7, North Korea carried out test missile launches with two KN-06 short range missiles that travelled the distance of several tens of kilometres in the direction of the Yellow Sea.
In the meantime, South Korean armed forces continue to monitor the activity of the North Korean Army, preparing for a possible provocation from the North. It was believed that on April 25, which is celebrated in North Korea as the Military Foundation Day, Pyongyang had plans to conduct military exercises or missile launches, but contrary to the predictions of South Korean intelligence service, nothing of that kind happened on that day.
The investigation into the attack on the US ambassador
A new scandal has shifted this news from the front pages, especially when it became clear that it wasn’t about a pro-North Korean activist, but about a representative of those nationalists who in a similar Russian situation precisely would be declared acting “under the control of the Kremlin.” Nevertheless, Kim Ki-jong is charged with attempted murder, commission of violence against a diplomatic employee and prejudice of professional activity.
Law enforcement officers carried out searches in Kim’s apartment and office and recovered 219 objects, including, horror of horrors, lectures on the Juche ideology and a work of the former DPRK leader Kim Jong-il on the art of cinema based on the Juche Idea. Thus, Kim Ki-jong can also be charged with violation of national security laws, however so far the public prosecutor’s office considers this “evidence of his complicity in Pyongyang’s activities” insufficient, remembering that his stay in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was quite official as it was organized through the Ministry of Unification whose employees have the right to read North Korean propaganda for study and counterpropagand
However, the topic of Pyongyang agents continues to make a lot of noise. The Korean Institute of Liberal Democracy, which deals with security issues, suddenly found that there are approximately 160 pro-North Korean minded organisations in South Korea and 30 of them receive direct instructions. Furthermore, about 1,500 companies have a positive attitude to Pyongyang. The results come from data collection conducted in respect of persons who violated national security laws, which is quite ironic if you think about how South Korea crank out conspiracy, the case of the United Progressive Party being one such example.
The launch of leaflets
The story continues because back in March anti-North Korean organizations made an announcement that they will, for a certain period of time, be secretly launching campaign materials to the North On April 9, the notorious “Fighters for a Free North Korea” tried to send balloons with 200 thousand leaflets and 5 thousand DVDs of the controversial film “The Interview” to North Korea, but the South Korean police prevented the dispatch out of consideration for the safety of locals. However, the group’s leader, Park Sang-hak, said that the defectors will make another attempt to send propaganda materials to the North later and, on April 4, another organisation similar to FFNK dispatched several thousand copies of the film and 1 million leaflets from Ganghwa Island in the Yellow Sea. It is interesting that, despite these “secret” launches, such events are always widely covered by foreign media.
What Park meant by “later” was April 15, when, according to his statements to the media, 30 thousand propaganda leaflets and 5 thousand DVDs and flash drives with copies of the film made their way to the North. The propaganda materials were sent by balloons from the mountainous city of Gimpo in Gyeonggi Province.
Another attempt was made in less than a week. On April 21, 150,000 propaganda leaflets and 2,500 DVDs and flash drives were dispatched from the Ganghwa County in the city of Incheon.
Park Sang-hak said that the organisation tracked the location of the balloons by GPS but, as soon as they crossed the demilitarised zone, the signal disappeared. The organization published this information after such dispatches of propaganda materials were called useless and ostentatious in certain circles, though, in the author’s opinion, it means that the balloons go astray almost instantly; and how big is the cost of the launches with thousands of flash drives is quite an interesting question.
Meanwhile, the North, through its propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri reminded of its promise to retaliate to such dispatches with fire and stressed that the North’s patience was running out.
About the controversy over the Kaesong Hi-Tech Industrial Park
Representatives of the joint management committee of the Kaesong Hi-Tech Industrial Park and the North Korean Directorate for Development of Special Areas had a meeting on April 18, during which they discussed Pyongyang’s demands to increase salaries. But the parties once again failed to reach a concrete agreement. According to the Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea, in the course of negotiations, North Korea listened to the arguments of the South, but did not suggest its own plan to resolve the situation. It was expected that the North might protest with a refusal to receive wages, cessation of night shifts and other measures, but on the afternoon of April 20 they decided to postpone payments. The North Korean Directorate for Development of Special Areas made this decision for the convenience of the South Korean companies working in Kaesong, but instructed accountants to pay March salaries based on the new rates, i.e. with a 5.18 percent increase. Pyongyang also said that the 15 percent social security contributions paid by South Korean businessmen working in Kaesong will be charged on all payments and not only from wages.
Meanwhile, 18 South Korean companies paid wages to their workers in Kaesong thereby violating the instructions of their government. In response to this, on April 22, Human Rights Watch reported that Pyongyang violated the rights of its workers: wages are said to be paid first to a special agency, and only after that workers can receive part of the earned money. In addition, North Korean authorities do not permit their workers to form trade unions. In accordance with the regulations of the Kaesong Hi-Tech Industrial Park, South Korean companies must pay wages directly to workers, but, in reality, the earnings are distributed by the DPRK authorities. As such, although the North demands an increase of the wages, it remains to be seen whether the workers will feel this increase.
Representatives of the South and the North have eventually agreed to hold another round of talks in May.
Konstantin Asmolov, candidate of historical sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
