Amid the political pandemonium instigated by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s catastrophic declaration of martial law, there is a corner of Korean society that is conversely experiencing a rare period of peace: border areas adjacent to North Korea.
Since June 2024, residents near the border have been afflicted by the North’s “noise bombs,” or an endless barrage of eerie sounds broadcast at unbearable levels to the degree of being deemed as psychological warfare. The North’s provocations were not one-sided, however; ailing locals and political scholars alike point to the intrusion of military drones and dissemination of anti-Kim Jong Un leaflets in North Korean territory as instigators of the low-level provocations from the North, such as noise bombing and trash balloons.
After Yoon’s duties were suspended following his impeachment by the National Assembly, no North-bound materials were found to have originated from the South, and border residents have enjoyed a respite from the blaring noise.
The anti-Kim leaflets that provoked North Korea’s auditory assault were mostly sent by civic groups, often founded by families of North Korean abductees. Activists would routinely gather at the South Korean city of Paju, which borders the military demarcation line that separates the Koreas, to launch balloons that would scatter leaflets over North Korean territory; contents may comprise of physical posters, audio broadcasts through embedded speakers, and flash drives that colorfully defame the Kim regime as well as necessities and dollar bills.
Despite continued protests from residents, the South Korean government refused to prohibit launches or even condemn those responsible in recent years. A decision by the Constitutional Court in September 2023 ruled that governmental obstructions against anti-North Korea leaflet launches were against the “freedom of expression” and therefore unconstitutional. However, it is difficult to excise the possibility that the South Korean government was either covertly involved in, or tacitly condoned, agitating Pyongyang. A lawmaker with the opposition Democratic Party even claimed that the South Korean military staged the dissemination of leaflets by infiltrating the Pyongyang airspace with drones.
That the provocations exchanged between the Koreas were of relatively low intensity should give no one a sense of security. The peninsula is still in a state of unfinished war, and inter-Korean relations are at their worst slump in years, with North Korea recently testing a hypersonic missile. In such a perilous context, that the South Korean government allowed civic organizations to send propaganda leaflets into enemy territory reads as nonsensical. Regardless of the validity of accusations that the South Korean government has been complicit in the leaflet launches, the government should prohibit the transmitting of materials to the North, excluding cases of explicit governmental approval. The most effective way to do so is by classifying the dissemination of leaflets as a violation of national security.
In the mercurial tumults of inter-Korean relations, North Korea has consistently demanded that the South halt leaflet launches, whether through courteous requests during periods of affinity or threats of military action in periods of conflict. Continued negotiations led to the National Assembly passing the Development of the Inter-Korean Relations Act, put into action in March 2021, that prohibited leaflet dissemination. That law found that dropping leaflets across the border would “inflict harm to citizens or cause serious danger,” deeming it as a “violation of inter-Korean agreements.”
The Constitutional Court’s decree two years later effectively nullified the accords by stating the right to expression alone constitutes a legal justification for leaflet launches. Yet this ruling disregards the real harm inflicted to South Korean citizens as a consequence, either through noise bombing or trash balloons that contain, among other things, human excrement. Most importantly, North Korea is technically enemy territory to the South. That alone should elevate the unsolicited transmission of any material to the North into a serious breach of national security that may be prosecuted by law.
The proposed sanctification of leaflet dissemination in the context of human rights defense, as argued by activists, fails to overrule the tangible human harm imposed as both a direct consequence and the potential to escalate into inter-Korean military altercations. A 2021 study by the Korea Institute for National Unification revealed that leaflets are unlikely to penetrate the North Korean populace due to physical limitations and the inefficacy of internal information transmission mechanisms. Moreover, the information revealing the “secrets” of the Kim regime is already widely known among the target audience. The core issue of human rights transgressions in North Korea is less about the literal lack of external information and more about systematic constraints, embedded in the foundational sediments of the Kim regime, that prohibit political congregation. Such a status is unlikely to be significantly impacted by the sporadic release of unsolicited leaflets.
Most critically, the Yoon administration has faced accusations of politically manipulating leaflet delivery, even being implicated in orchestrating it. A drastic tone change in the government’s stance on leaflets after Yoon’s ouster may offer corroborating context. On December 16, after the parliament impeached Yoon, Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho urged leaflet groups to adopt a “prudent” – government lingua for “restricted” – approach in leaflet dispersion while declaring the government would “prioritize” the safety of South Korean citizens. Such shifts, of course, read as if the government is admitting that safety of its residents was not on top of its list when the Yoon presidency allowed the dispersion of an uncounted mass of leaflets over the border while noise bombs and balloons assailed South Koreans.
To this end, it is critical to establish a societal consensus recognizing that leaflet distribution constitutes a security risk, serving as a form of low-intensity provocation. Such activities could be managed by mandating a military-administered permit system or establishing an amendment that clearly states the national security and safety of citizens trump attempts of correspondence with a warring state. The unique security threat posed by North Korea warrants consistent regulation of civic activities directed at the regime, independent of political changes. Regardless of who is selected as South Korea’s next leader should the Constitutional Court confirm Yoon’s impeachment, it is essential that bilateral cooperation fosters a consensus on inter-Korean relations while safeguarding against the politicization of the issue to ensure regional security.