hankyoreh

near the waters where the Cheonan warship sank

The head of the organization of North Korean refugees whose launch of balloons filled with propaganda leaflets instigated retaliatory fire from the North Korean military sent more balloons into North Korea from Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, early in the morning of Oct. 31. The police found out about the unannounced launch before it happened and dispatched officers to the scene, but they just stood by and watched.

“After arriving at the site where I was going to launch the balloons around 10 pm on Oct. 30, I finished the preparations and released them without publicizing between 12:30 and 2:30 in the morning on Oct. 31. I launched a total of 33 balloons containing around a million leaflets,” Lee Min-bok, the person in charge of propaganda balloons for the Campaign for Helping North Korean in a Direct Way, told the Hankyoreh in a phone interview.

The site of the launch - a road in Goseong Village, Changsu Township, Pocheon County - was about 20km from the edge of the DMZ.

The leaflets contain criticism of the Kim dynasty and Kim Jong-un’s succession as leader of North Korea.

Previously, Lee launched 3 million leaflets from Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 10. This launch drew the first ever retaliatory fire from North Korean anti-aircraft guns and provoked a backlash from local residents who are opposed to the balloon launches.

After being informed of Lee’s plans to launch the leaflets by a police officer who is assigned to ensure the man’s safety, the police dispatched officers to the scene but did not prevent Lee from carrying out the launch.

“The police and military deployed around ten vehicles to stay at the scene, but they did not stop me from launching the balloons,” Lee said.

“The officers were not sent to prevent the launch of leaflets. Even the Unification of Ministry says there is no legal basis for stopping such launches. They were sent in order to keep Lee safe in the event of an altercation with people who are opposed to the launches,” said an officer from the intelligence and security department at the Pocheon Police Department in Gyeonggi Province.

The police have assigned an officer to accompany Lee around the clock to ensure that nothing happens to the man who has been launching propaganda leaflets into North Korea since 2008. Since Lee moved to Pocheon in 2012, Pocheon Police Department has been responsible for him.

The police’s attitude on the matter seems to reconfirm the government’s refusal to stop the distribution of the propaganda leaflets. When conservative groups and local residents got into a scuffle over the launch of the balloons at Imjingak, Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 25, the police only broke up fights between the various organizations without interfering with the actual launch of the balloons.

When Lee Hee-ho, wife of the late Kim Dae-jung, former president of South Korea, asked President Park Geun-hye to stop the launch of the propaganda leaflets on Oct. 28, Park reportedly said that there is no legal basis for blocking the launches.

After news broke about another balloon launch, the police pretended that they had been unaware of Lee’s plans. “We did not learn about the launch of the balloons in advance. We aren’t able to follow around every one of these groups,” the chief of the second security department at police headquarters said.

“We had been apprised of the situation in advance, but we did not take any special measures since there was no altercation with people opposing the launches. The police do not have any legal grounds for preventing the launches,” said the head of public security at the National Police Agency, contradicting the other official’s remarks.

“The government’s position on the launch of the propaganda balloons remains the same as before. There are no legal grounds for preventing civic organizations from launching the leaflets. However, we will take the necessary measures when there are concerns about the safety of these individuals,” an official at the Unification Ministry said.

In Oct. 2012 and May 2013, the police blocked the entrance to Imjingak, preventing groups from launching balloons.

By Choi Hyun-june and Jin Myeon-seon, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]