hankyoreh

A North Korean village as seen from the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon on June 18. (Yonhap News)

“Instead of stopping at demolishing the North-South joint liaison office, we should shower the human scum with our own thunderbolts of garbage.”

This was the message in a column by Chon Mun-yong, director of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, published in North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper on June 18. It read as a call to initiate a “people’s struggle” against launches of balloons filled with anti-North propaganda launched across the border from South Korea, as the Korean People’s Army General Staff declared on both June 16 and 17. The message hinted that North Korea is considering its own balloon launches as a third “action against the enemy” after cutting off an inter-Korean hotline on June 9 and blowing up the joint liaison office in Kaesong on June 16.

On pages 5 and 6, the Rodong Sinmun dedicated major coverage to “responses from various segments to news of the statement from Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee First Deputy Director [Kim Yo-jong] and the utter demolition of the North-South joint liaison office.” But unlike June 17, when Kim, United Front Department Director Jang Kum-chol, and a General Staff spokesperson all came out at one with an onslaught of statements, no official statements warning of additional actions against the South were issued that day. There was also no response to an official statement by the Blue House the day before stating that it “cannot tolerate this anymore.”

To begin with, the Rodong Sinmun shares reactions to the Kaesong office’s demolition, quoting Munitions Industry Department Director Han Yong-chol as saying it was “thrilling to see the elimination of what must be eliminated” and workers at the Kusong Textile Mills as calling the news “refreshing.”

“The punishment by the angry people starts now,” the newspaper said.

Observing that “the right to engage in action against the enemy has now passed to our military,” the newspaper warned, “The explosion of justice that rings out going forward may exceed imagination. Our military’s announcement should be approached carefully.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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