hankyoreh

In the upper photo, South Korean soldiers guard the 155m-high metal tree on top of Aegibong Peak in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, after lighting up around 100,000 lights of the stylized tower at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The military forced the participants, mainly from Seoul-based Yeouido Full Gospel Church, to hasten their lighting ceremony in case of a North Korean attack.

Aegibong, just 3km away from the border, was used as a launching point for propaganda leaflets sent to North Korea that has been stopped since both countries agreed to suspend propaganda activities in the area near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in 2004 under the Sunshine Policy.

North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun said on Monday that the lighting of the tree tower would be a signal that anti-North psycological warfare via a large electronic display that the South Korean military has installed at the demilitarized zone could also soon be activated.

“It is a rash act which could possibly lead to a military clash,” the paper stated, denouncing the move.

North Korea has threatened to shoot the display and propaganda loudspeakers at the DMZ.

In the lower photo, South Korean civic organization activists and Netizens put on an anti-war performance at Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul the same day. In the performance, they wanted to display dead bodies that could be the result of a possible inter-Korean war.

(Photo by Kim Jin-su and Rhee Jong-chan)