[Opinion] Balloons Flying Northward are a Message of Life Informing the Koreans in North Korea of their God-given Human Rights

2020-6-24, The Word News [TRANSLATION]

Note:  This is a press article contributed by Joo Il-ryong (주일룡), the president of Korea University Truth Forum regarding the leaflets sent toward North Korea. Joo Il-ryong, a Millennial defector from North Korea, is currently attending Korea University.  Joo is interested in human rights issues in North Korea and is speaking out.]

Recently, human rights groups’ leaflet-carrying balloons (the “balloons”) have become an issue in Korea. Because of this, the conflict between North Korean human rights groups that have been flying the balloons and the government trying to stop them is escalating. North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong (김여정) continues to blame the South Korean government daily for the balloons, and continues to threaten the South Korean government, including blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office, and insists that inter-Korean relations are deteriorating.

The strain in inter-Korean relations, however, was not caused by the balloons. The [provocative] actions thus far have been unilateral on the part of North Korea, with the balloons as an excuse.  Even before the balloons, North Korea has already made several military provocations against Korea, and recently has even shot at a [South Korean] Guard Post.

Given that North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests have reached record highs in the past few years, despite the current South Korean government pursuing an appeasement policy toward North Korea, it can be seen that North Korea conducts propaganda against South Korea however way it wants, regardless of South Korea’s policy. Therefore, saying that the inter-Korean peace is broken because of the leaflets is only to agree with the perversity claimed by North Korea.

The most important issue, however, is not limited to simply sending or not sending the balloons.

First, the key is the guarantee of the right to life and the right to information for North Koreans. Although they are under the strict control of the North Korean regime, they have the same natural rights or God-given human rights, because they are the same people like us. They have the right to know the circumstances surrounding them and the right to guarantee their own lives. However, since there is no way to tell them otherwise, the balloon is used to inform them.

Second, the contents of leaflets are not falsehoods, but mostly the facts of North Korea’s misery and the freedom of the Republic of Korea. It is only to inform these facts and to write the longing for their families in letters and send them to the north through balloons. There is no reason to regulate this. If the law penalizes a person for telling the truth to someone else who doesn’t know such truth, it seems to be more than an infringement of freedom of expression, but an intentional suppression of free speech.

In other words, punishing such leaflet sending by law is (as stated in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) like agreeing with [the North Korean regime] in its organized and wide-ranging murder of the people in North Korea. It is absurd to think that what is derived by colluding with the dictator and a small number of elites is “peace” on the peninsula, while [South Korean government] remains silent about the suppression of the 25 million people [in North Korea].,

As if agreeing with North Korea’s unreasonable claims is not enough, the governor of Gyeonggi Province and other government officials are promoting the public’s anxiety by bringing up the right to life of the people in the border region. It is false that the leaflets impact the right to life of the people in the border area and such a declaration can be seen as a political move to promote public anxiety. Sending leaflets on balloons is not a provocative act, but a civil society activity.  As such if North Korea responds by force, it would violate the Armistice Agreement and is a declaration of war. North Korea, therefore,will not actually harm the residents of the border region. If North Korea declares war, it is choosing self-destruction, because the economic and defense power of South Korea are greater than those of North Korea, and the United Nations Command is stationed in South Korea.Therefore, it is rather appropriate to punish those who created and spread false narratives stating the border residents lives are endangered by the balloons.  They are the ones that need to be punished.

Sadly, it is a humiliation and shame for South Korea, one of the leading economies in the world, to impose legal controls when the younger sister of a leader (Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung) of North Korea, one of the poorest countries in the world, complains.  There has never been a case in the history of South Korea, when the Ministry of Unification (MOU) has so promptly and strongly carried out tasks [to placate North Korea].

When Han Seong-ok (a defector) died with her toddler son of starvation (한상옥 모자의 아사 사건) in Seoul and when the two young men who were brokers [who helped Koreans escape from North Korea], who escaped to South Korea, were falsely accused of murder and the South Korean government repatriated them in November last year (2019), the Unification Ministry kept silent and issued no apology at all. The MOU’s behaviors this time [after Kim Yo-jong’s complaints] in such a thorough and quick manner (at least on the surface) are exceedingly submissive and insulting. It is questionable for what country the Unification Ministry works.

Moreover, if the balloons were able to ruffle the feathers of North Korean leadership and to touch the hearts of North Koreans this much, haven’t they already proven to be more effective and efficient than any missiles? If the Unification Ministry is truly preparing for the unification, the government should do its best to support more leaflets spread all over North Korea.  Why are they pretending to be blind and ignorant, when that is the way for true human rights and unification?

Source: https://www.thewordnews.co.kr/news/article.html?no=22877