hankyoreh

A sign at the entrance to Wolgot saying balloon launches are not welcome. (photos by Chai Yoon-tae)

“We don’t want propaganda balloons, which only stir up antagonism and conflict.”

As I entered the village, the first thing I saw was a banner bearing a warning to outsiders. Police cars and military vehicles were on standby all around the village in the Wolgot township of Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, when the Hankyoreh visited on June 15, the 20th anniversary of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration of 2000. That same day 20 years earlier, a mood of peace was created on the Korean Peninsula -- but a sense of peace was difficult to spot this time around. On a day when military tensions were high between the two sides after defector groups announced plans to send more propaganda balloons to the North, the silence of the border village just 1.5km from North Korea concealed a simmering sense of anxiety.

On June 15, National Police Agency Commissioner General Min Gab-ryong announced, “We have issued emergency alert orders to [local police agencies in] Incheon, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and South Chungcheong and positioned officers at major points based on analysis of tides and wind direction for a 24-hour prevention system.” Police officers on standby for inspections could be seen all around Wolgot. One of the officers there said that he had been dispatched from Suwon.

“Police officers from throughout Gyeonggi Province are being rotated to patrol the border,” he said.

Speaking with the Hankyoreh in front of the Gomak No. 2 village center in Wolgot, an 87-year-old resident surnamed Lee seemed familiar with the inter-Korean tensions that had emerged once again after a long absence.

“It’s been two years since the police came to arrest people who were launching balloons. Before that, they came every year,” Lee recalled.

“It happened pretty often back then, so I’m not that nervous,” Lee added.

A company employee surnamed Choi, 52, said, “Living in the border region, you live with the North Korea threat every day.”

A banner in Wolgot calling for an end to balloon launches

Although they’ve become accustomed to tensions along the border over the decades, none of the residents welcomed unnecessary provocation.

“Politically, I’m conservative, but I don’t think we need to be provoking the North Korean regime with propaganda balloons,” said Min Gyeong-guk, 65, who said his family had been living in Wolgot for over 300 years.

“The South Korean government should take a hard line in its response to North Korea, but we can’t have people needlessly provoking them with balloon launches,” he said.

Choi Tae-seong, 64, a member of the Wolgot residents’ association, said, “Times have changed. Before, South and North were both fighting and sending propaganda to each other. Aren’t we supposed to be pursuing peace these days?”

“The North Korean government has always used strong language. We just need to follow the path of peace in our own way,” he stressed.

A barbed wire fence installed by a Wolgot resident to deter people from trespassing on private property and launching propaganda balloons across the border

In the village, a small hill could be seen blocked off with mounds of dirt and barbed wire, as if to keep away anyone who might be coming to launch propaganda balloons. At the entrance to the hill, a sign read, “These have been put up because we can no longer tolerate people damaging private property and tossing garbage.” Residents said that while the sign claimed the reason was garbage, the owner’s real aim was to prevent defector groups from using the hill to launch balloons carrying leaflets to North Korea as they had done every past year.

A trip up the hill pointed out by residents showed a high plateau farther up. It seemed well suited for leaflet balloon launches, being located just 2km from North Korea with no trees around it. A police officer was conducting inspections there explained, “People have routinely used this hill to launch leaflet balloons into North Korea, so we have security in place 24 hours a day and are inspecting any suspicious vehicles.”

The inter-Korean tensions are also a major burden for small business proprietors, who have already had to deal with a steep drop in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All around Wolgot, banners could be seen with the message, “Stop scattering leaflets in North Korea. It’s ruining the local economy.”

By Chae Yoon-tae, staff reporter

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