Inside sources have revealed that the North Korean authorities, building on recent TV propaganda, are working to generate popular hostility towards South Korea through people’s unit meetings.
It was revealed some days ago that Chosun Central TV has been continuously critical of the ’South-North secret contacts’ and activities of the ‘traitor party’/‘South Chosun puppet faction’ since the beginning of this month. Now, the same has been transferred across to people’s units.
“In the people’s unit meeting yesterday, they emphasized that ‘The South Chosun puppet faction looks down on our Republic, lying to us habitually. This time, the Republic must clearly show them that its independence is alive,’” a source from Yangkang Province told The Daily NK today.
The speaker kept referring to the South Korean government in disparaging terms throughout the meeting, the source added, continuing, “They added that we must do the nation’s duty as one, and must not allow ourselves to relax.”
Another source from North Hamkyung Province explained more, saying, “On the 8 o’clock news, the words South Chosun puppet faction and traitor party have been coming out for a number of days. Here, people are under the impression that a war will start soon.”
North Korea first revealed the existence of the May 9th secret meeting with South Korean officials on June 1st, claiming that South Korea met to beg for an inter-Korean summit and even offered a monetary inducement, something which the South Korean authorities dismiss as a distortion of what went on, namely that they demanded an apology for the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling.
In any case, while efforts to raise a tense atmosphere are common in North Korea, they ordinarily occur at times when U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises are scheduled to occur. Therefore, defectors agree that the current moves are unusual.
One defector explained, “I spoke to someone in North Korea yesterday, and suddenly the person asked me, ‘What’s the situation there? It’s warlike here now.’ I was surprised. There had not even been any anti-aircraft exercises, but because words like ‘independence’ and ‘we must get revenge’ kept coming up, the person was worrying that a war would break out any minute.”
It’s all a bit confusing, the North Hamkyung Province source added, pointing out, “They gave education on Kim Jong Il’s greatness once, the friendly relationship with China once, and now this time it is about hostility towards South Chosun, so it is hard for people to understand what is going on. It seems that they mean to make us think the reason why we can’t live well is South Chosun.”
Externally, the North has seized upon the recent revelation that South Korean soldiers have been using images of the Kim family for target practice to justify hostility towards the Lee administration, from which it is demanding an apology, but sources say that this case has not been reported internally.
