I Wonder What They’ll Look Like on a SAM-2 Radar Screen
Plenty of armchair psyoppers, myself included, have talked about ways to fly leaflets and other items into North Korea, but here’s the most ambitious concept I’ve seen yet.
A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago. [Pravda]
Yes, Pravda! Not only does it still exist, but now reports on capitalist conspiracies to infitrate future former Communist dictatorships, and even features work-safe p*rn star picture galleries. If you’re aware of a more dubious Cold War victory, I’d like to hear about it. The leaflets are coming to a bleak and reclusive tyranny near you (but thankfully not near me) in March.
The 5-meter- (20-foot-) long balloons are fitted with simple timers and can be preset to release sacks of flyers over the Pyongyang region, Araki said.
There is also some precedent for this, if any of you have read of the balloon bombs Japan used during World War Two. I still remember seeing a defuzed one in the South Dakota State Museum in Pierre, and although I was probably just four at the time, I remember it clearly. A few of of those balloons hit the United States and started a number of forest fires. One even caused several fatalities.
The postcard-sized flyers, which are waterproof and printed in Japanese and Korean, call for details on Japanese citizens abducted by communist agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
The flyers also offer a cash reward of up to US$10,000 for information on Japanese abductees and urge residents to contact a hot line in Japan or tune in to a radio program the group transmits toward North Korea.
I hope — as the story suggests — that these things have guidance or navigation systems, since I’d hate to see one drift over the DMZ and cause any “misunderstandings,” or needlessly confuse pensioners in Khabarovsk. These days, even cell phones carry GPS chips, so I see no reason why a nation as technologically advanced as Japan couldn’t penetrate the North Korean coast in a fairly remote area, and then drop the leaflets on a more populated one.
The other interesting question is just what the groups paying out those rewards get for their money, since retrieving those abductees may not be a simple matter even if someone knows their location. Still, I like the idea as a demonstration project and for its economics. I don’t know what these things cost to make, but it’s probably less than an SA-2, a long burst of 57-milimeter fire, or the cost of sending out a battalion of soldiers to comb an entire square mile for leaflets. This could greatly raise the cost of not accounting for all of the abductees.
When I saw Pravda next to the headline, I was skeptical too. But then the Daily Mainichi picked up the same story here.
And the organization does exist though why they made such an awkward name for an even more awkward acronym (COMJAN) I am not sure. Here is their very outdated and very ugly site.
The ROK Army had its own propaganda leaflet ballon detachments set up along the DMZ until just a few years ago. I guess leafleting was considered a provocation, so under the Sunshine policy it was stopped.
It was a pretty big operation, and the leaflets were clever. I just can’t believe we stopped.
I remember reading that the propaganda loudspeakers were going to be coming down after the 2000 inter-Korean summit. I went up on a DMZ tour a few months later, and the juche propaganda amps was turned up to “11,” Spinal Tap style.
The ROK Air Force will shoot them down well before they come within range of DPRK’s SA-5 radars.
The ROK Air Force will shoot them down well before they come within range of DPRK’s SA-5 radars.
Sad, but true.
I hope the japanese drop more than just abductee reward notes, ie information about the true nature of the NK regime and maybe some chocolate…sounds ridiculous but i just finished reading Behind Closed Doors and the author told of how some North Koreans secretly admitted to fond memories of the US dropping chocolate in the 90s when they were starving, Small things can make big differences. If the Japanese use this opportunity to just go about their own buiness i’d say thats a pretty selfish waste of a good opportunity for making headway in NK.